Laravel easier way to save multiple input fields to database - laravel

Question

I am trying to save a long form data to database. Till now i am getting the form value from request object and setting it to database model.
This works perfectly fine. But I want to know if there is another way to initialise the model efficiently without need to set each value. My model has one to one relation.
I have been doing like this. But i don't think this is the right way to do
//Student details
$studentDetail->student_first_name = $request->input('studentFirstName');
$studentDetail->student_last_name = $request->input('studentLastName');
$studentDetail->student_phone_number = $request->input('studentPhoneNumber');
$studentDetail->student_date_of_birth = $request->input('studentDOB');
$studentDetail->student_email = $request->input('studentEmail');
$studentDetail->save();
$studentAddress = new Address();
$studentAddress->address_1 = $request->input('studentAddress1');
$studentAddress->address_2 = $request->input('studentAddress2');
$studentAddress->city = $request->input('studentCity');
$studentAddress->state = $request->input('studentState');
$studentAddress->country = $request->input('studentCountry');
$studentAddress->post_code = $request->input('studentPostCode');
$studentDetail->addresses()->save($studentAddress);
$visaDetails = new Visa();
$visaDetails->passport_number = $request->input("visaPassportNumber");
$visaDetails->visa_number = $request->input("visaVisaNumber");
$visaDetails->visa_class = $request->input("visaVisaClass");
$visaDetails->visa_grant_date = $request->input("visaVisaGrantDate");
$visaDetails->visa_expiry_date = $request->input("visaVisaExpiryDate");
$studentDetail->visaDetails()->save($visaDetails);
//
$instituteDetails = new Institute();
$instituteDetails->institute_name = $request->input("instituteName");
$instituteDetails->institute_location = $request->input("instituteLocation");
$instituteDetails->institute_phone1 = $request->input("institutePhone1");
$instituteDetails->institute_phone2 = $request->input("institutePhone2");
$instituteDetails->institute_email = $request->input("instituteEmail");
// dd($instituteDetails->courses);
$courseDetails = new Course();
$courseDetails->course_level = $request->input("courseLevel");
$courseDetails->course_name = $request->input("courseName");
$courseDetails->course_fee = $request->input("courseFee");
$courseDetails->course_concession_fee = $request->input("courseConcessionFee");
$courseDetails->course_duration = $request->input("courseDuration");
$courseDetails->course_commencement_date = $request->input("courseCommencementDate");
$studentDetail->instituteDetails()->save($instituteDetails);
$instituteDetails->courses()->save($courseDetails);
Any idea on making this process faster??

Answer 1

Simply set create your models using mass assignment, so:
So in your model StudentDetail:
class StudentDetail{
protected $fillable = [
'student_first_name',
'student_last_name',
'student_phone_number',
'student_date_of_birth',
'student_email',
];
//...
//... rest of your model
}
Then tweak your HTML inputs to have in their names the user array like so for example:
<input type="text" id="foo" name="student[student_first_name]">
<input type="text" id="foo" name="student[student_last_name]">
.....
Tip: for validation, you have to treat it with dot notation, so your rule could be:
'student.student_first_name' => 'required|humanName|string|max:255',
Now simply do the following in your controller:
$studentDetail = StudentDetail::create($request->input('student'));
Now you made do the same for your address and other models.
The GIST: After mass assignment enabled for your models you could end up having ONLY the following couple lines of code doing it all for you and it's way more fun and full of dynamism ;) IMHO!
$relatedModels = ['Address', 'Visa', 'Institute', 'Course'];
foreach ($relatedModels as $relatedModel) {
$relatedModelClass = 'App\\'.$relatedModel; //adjust the namespace of your models here.
$ormRelatedModel = $relatedModelClass::create(strtolower($request->input($relatedModel)));
$studentDetail->{strtolower(str_plural($relatedModel)) . 'Details'}()->save($ormRelatedModel);
}
please note that in this case your relations names should be changed a bit like addresses function within your StudentDetail class/model should be changed to addressesDetails or just remove the .'Details' from my sample code above and remove it from your other relations names, i.e: change instituteDetails() to institute(). and make the relation names plural please!
I just tested it and it's working,
Cheers!