Laravel controller, move creating and updating to model? - laravel

Question

my question is about how to split this code. I have a registration form and it's saving function looks like this:
public function store(EntityRequestCreate $request)
{
$geoloc = new Geoloc;
$geoloc->lat = $request->input('lat');
$geoloc->lng = $request->input('lng');
$geoloc->slug = $request->input('name');
$geoloc->save();
$user_id = Auth::id();
$entity = new Entity;
$entity->name = $request->input('name');
$entity->type = $request->input('type');
$entity->email = $request->input('email');
$entity->tags = $request->input('tags');
$entity->_geoloc()->associate($geoloc);
$entity->save();
$entity_id = $entity->id;
$address = new Address;
$address->building_name = $request->input('building_name');
$address->address = $request->input('address');
$address->town = $request->input('town');
$address->postcode = $request->input('postcode');
$address->telephone = $request->input('telephone');
$address->entity_id = $entity_id;
$address->save();
$role = User::find($user_id);
$role->role = "2";
$role->save();
DB::table('entity_user')->insert(array('entity_id' => $entity_id, 'user_id' => $user_id));
$result = $geoloc->save();
$result2 = $entity->save();
$result3 = $address->save();
$result4 = $role->save();
if ($result && $result2 && $result3 && $result4) {
$data = $entity_id;
}
else {
$data = 'error';
}
return redirect('profile/entity');
}
As you see, it has a custom request and it is saving to 3 models, that way my controller code is far too long (having many other functions etc) Instead I want to move this code to a model, as my model so far has only relationships defined in it. However I don't exactly know how to call a model from controller, do I have to call it or it will do it automatically? Any other ideas on how to split the code?

Answer 1

You could use the models create method to make this code shorter and more readable.
For example:
$geoloc = Geoloc::create(
$request->only(['lat', 'lng', 'name'])
);
$entity = Entity::create(
$request->only(['name', 'type', 'email', 'tags])
);
$entity->_geoloc()->associate($geoloc);
$address = Address::create([
array_merge(
['entity_id' => $entity->id],
$request->only(['building_address', 'address', 'town'])
)
])
...
The create method will create an object from a given associated array. The only method on the request object will return an associated array with only the fields for the given keys.