Adding custom eloquent attribute in Laravel 5 - laravel

Question

I have a function named siblings which fetches all siblings of a user.
select siblings(id) as `siblings` from users where id = 1
I can access the function in Eloquent as
User::where('id', 1)->first([DB::raw(siblings(id) as `siblings`)]->siblings;
I want to make the siblings available via custom attribute.
I added siblings to $appends array
I also created getSiblingsAttribute method in my User model as
public function getSiblingsAttribute()
{
if (!$this->exists()) {
return [];
}
$siblings = User::where('idd', $this->id)
->first([DB::raw('siblings(id) AS `siblings`')])
->siblings;
return explode(',', $siblings);
}
But this is not working as $this->id returns null
My table schema is users(id, username,...), so clearly id is present.
Is there a way by which I can bind the siblings function while querying db and then returning something like $this->siblings from getSiblingsAttribute. If I can bind siblings(id) as siblings with query select globally as we do for scopes using global scope.
That way my code can be simply
public function getSiblingsAttribute()
{
return $this->siblings;
}

Answer 1

The simplest way is to create a view in your database and use that as a table:
protected $table = 'user_view';
Otherwise I need more information about your id == null problem.
If you can fix this by your own in the next step it is important that you use an other column name by selecting as in your accessor otherwise you run in an infinite loop.
public function getSiblingsAttribute()
{
if (!$this->exists()) {
return [];
}
$siblings = User::where('id', $this->id)
->first([DB::raw('siblings(id) AS `siblings_value`')])
->siblings_value;
return explode(',', $siblings);
}
EDIT
Sadly there is no simple way to archieve this.
But after a little bit tinkering I have found a (not very nice) solution.
Give it a try.
You have to add the following class and trait to your app.
app/Classes/AdditionalColumnsTrait.php (additional column trait)
namespace App\Classes;
trait AdditionalColumnsTrait {
public function newEloquentBuilder($query) {
$builder = new EloquentBuilder($query);
$builder->additionalColumns = $this->getAdditionalColumns();
return $builder;
}
protected function getAdditionalColumns() {
return [];
}
}
app/Classes/EloquentBuilder.php (extended EloquentBuilder)
namespace App\Classes;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder;
class EloquentBuilder extends Builder {
public $additionalColumns = [];
public function getModels($columns = ['*']) {
$oldColumns = is_null($this->query->columns) ? [] : $this->query->columns;
$withTablePrefix = $this->getModel()->getTable() . '.*';
if (in_array('*', $columns) && !in_array($withTablePrefix, $oldColumns)) {
$this->query->addSelect(array_merge($columns, array_values($this->additionalColumns)));
} elseif (in_array($withTablePrefix, $oldColumns)) {
$this->query->addSelect(array_values($this->additionalColumns));
} else {
foreach ($this->additionalColumns as $name => $additionalColumn) {
if (!is_string($name)) {
$name = $additionalColumn;
}
if (in_array($name, $columns)) {
if (($key = array_search($name, $columns)) !== false) {
unset($columns[$key]);
}
$this->query->addSelect($additionalColumn);
}
}
if (is_null($oldColumns)) {
$this->query->addSelect($columns);
}
}
return parent::getModels($columns);
}
}
after that you can edit your model like this:
class User extends Model {
...
use App\Classes\AdditionalColumnsTrait;
protected function getAdditionalColumns() {
return [
'siblings' => DB::raw(siblings(id) as siblings)),
];
}
...
}
now your siblings column will be selected by default.
Also you have the option to select only specific columns.
If you don't want to select the additional columns you can use: User::find(['users.*']).
Perhaps it is a solution for you.