Laravel avoid duplicate entry from model - laravel

Question

I'm building a Laravel API. I have a models called Reservations. I want to avoid that a user creates two reservations for the same product and time period.
I have the following:
$reservation = Reservation::firstOrCreate([
'listing_id' => $request->listing_id,
'user_id_from' => $request->user_id_from,
'start_date' => $request->start_date,
'end_date' => $request->end_date,
]);
Edit after comments:
I'm also using validation
$validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [
'listing_id' => 'required|exists:listings,id',
'user_id_from' => 'required|exists:users,id',
'start_date' => 'required|date_format:"Y-m-d"|after:today',
'end_date' => 'required|date_format:"Y-m-d"|after:start_date'
]);
if ($validator->fails()) {
return response()->json(['error' => 'Validation failed'], 403);
}
Validation is working properly.
End of Edit
In my model I have casted the start_date and end_date as dates.
class Reservation extends Model
{
protected $fillable = ['listing_id', 'start_date', 'end_date'];
protected $dates = [
'start_date',
'end_date'
];
....
....
Documentation says:
The firstOrCreate method will attempt to locate a database record
using the given column / value pairs
However I notice that I'm still able to insert entries with the same attributes.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong or suggestions to fix it?

Answer 1

Probably there's a better way than this, but you can create an static method on Reservation to do this, like:
public static function createWithRules($data) {
$exists = $this->where('product_id', $data['product_id'])->whereBetween(*date logic that i don't remember right now*)->first();
if(!$exists) {
* insert logic *
} else {
* product with date exists *
}
}
So you can call Reservation::createWithRules($data)

Answer 2

You can achieve this using Laravel's built in ValidateRequest class. The most simple use-case for this validation, is to call it directly in your store() method like this:
public function store(){
$this->validate($request, [
'listing_id' => 'required|unique,
'start_date' => 'required|unique,
//... and so on
], $this->messages);
$reservation = Reservation::firstOrCreate([
'listing_id' => $request->listing_id,
'user_id_from' => $request->user_id_from,
'start_date' => $request->start_date,
'end_date' => $request->end_date,
]);
}
With this, you're validating users $request with by saying that specified columns are required and that they need to be unique, in order for validation to pass.
In your controller, you can also create messages function to display error messages, if the condition isn't met.
private $messages = [
'listing_id.required' => 'Listing_id is required',
'title.unique' => 'Listing_id already exists',
//... and so on
];
You can also achieve this by creating a new custom validation class:
php artisan make:request StoreReservation
The generated class will be placed in the app/Http/Requests directory. Now, you can add a few validation rules to the rules method:
public function rules()
{
return [
'listing_id' => 'required|unique,
'start_date' => 'required|unique,
//... and so on
];
}
All you need to do now is type-hint the request on your controller method. The incoming form request is validated before the controller method is called, meaning you do not need to clutter your controller with any validation logic:
public function store(StoreReservation $request)
{
// The incoming request is valid...
// Retrieve the validated input data...
$validated = $request->validated();
}
If you have any additional question about this, feel free to ask. Source: Laravel official documentation.