How Do I Prevent Duplicate When Storing My API Fetched Data - laravel

Question

I am fetching data from an API. I am able to store the data in my database but whenever i refresh, it stores another copy of the same set of data fetched from the API. I simply want to know how to only update the database with the new records whilst ignoring the old once stored already.
Controller
public function dashboard()
{
$client = new Client();
$uri = 'https://api.clickmeeting.com/v1/conferences/active';
$header = ['headers' => ['X-Api-Key' => '123456']];
$res = $client->get($uri, $header);
$conferences = json_decode($res->getBody()->getContents(), true);
collect($conferences)
->each(function ($conference, $key) {
ClickMeeting::create([
'conference_id' => $conference['id'],
'parent_id' => $conference['parent_id'],
'room_type' => $conference['room_type'],
'room_pin' => $conference['room_pin'],
'name' => $conference['name'],
'name_url' => $conference['name_url'],
'access_type' => $conference['access_type'],
'lobby_enabled' => $conference['lobby_enabled'],
'lobby_description' => $conference['lobby_description'],
'registration_enabled' => $conference['registration_enabled'],
'status' => $conference['status'],
'timezone' => $conference['timezone'],
'timezone_offset' => $conference['timezone_offset'],
'paid_enabled' => $conference['paid_enabled'],
'automated_enabled' => $conference['automated_enabled'],
'type' => $conference['type'],
'permanent_room' => $conference['permanent_room'],
'room_url' => $conference['room_url'],
'embed_room_url' => $conference['embed_room_url'],
]);
});
return view('admin.clickmeeting.dashboard');
}
Migration Schema
public function up()
{
Schema::create('clickmeeting', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->timestamps();
$table->string('conference_id')->unique();
$table->string('parent_id')->nullable();
$table->string('room_type');
$table->string('room_pin');
$table->string('name');
$table->string('name_url');
$table->string('ends_at');
$table->string('access_type');
$table->string('lobby_enabled');
$table->string('lobby_description');
$table->string('registration_enabled');
$table->string('status');
$table->string('timezone');
$table->string('timezone_offset');
$table->string('paid_enabled');
$table->string('automated_enabled');
$table->string('type');
$table->string('permanent_room');
$table->string('room_url');
$table->string('embed_room_url');
});
}
Help is gratefully appreciated. Thank You

Answer 1

Laravel has a firstOrCreate() method, which either finds the model or creates it. Perfect for your example. The first parameter, is the columns that defines the uniqueness and the second parameter is the columns that should be added to the row. These columns are concatenated when saved. It is very uncommon and flaky, to expect such a big request to use all columns for uniqueness.
Let's imagine that these 3 columns would define a non present composite key room_type, parent_id and room_url. This can be adjusted by you to follow the correct columns.
ClickMeeting::firstOrCreate([
'parent_id' => $conference['parent_id'],
'room_type' => $conference['room_type'],
'room_url' => $conference['room_url'],
],
[
'conference_id' => $conference['id'],
'room_pin' => $conference['room_pin'],
'name' => $conference['name'],
'name_url' => $conference['name_url'],
'access_type' => $conference['access_type'],
'lobby_enabled' => $conference['lobby_enabled'],
'lobby_description' => $conference['lobby_description'],
'registration_enabled' => $conference['registration_enabled'],
'status' => $conference['status'],
'timezone' => $conference['timezone'],
'timezone_offset' => $conference['timezone_offset'],
'paid_enabled' => $conference['paid_enabled'],
'automated_enabled' => $conference['automated_enabled'],
'type' => $conference['type'],
'permanent_room' => $conference['permanent_room'],
'embed_room_url' => $conference['embed_room_url'],
],
]);