Column alias definitions

Level 88

This is what you need: http://laravel.com/docs/5.0/eloquent#accessors-and-mutators

getAgeAttribute($value)
{
    return $this->attributes['age_of_me'];
}

Now you can do this on your model

$customer->age;

2 likes

Level 13

Nope, sorry but unfortunately this is not the solution. I know getters and setters or like Laravel calls them "acccessors" and "mutators". But I don't like to access a propery of the model. I like to get the properties by different keys than the column names, i.e. when getting a collection of obejects.

1 like

Level 53

@bart Mappable will do the job for you. https://github.com/jarektkaczyk/eloquence/wiki/Mappable

3 likes

Level 13

First of all thanks a lot @JarekTkaczyk But I'm using Lumen instead of Laravel 5 for a simple and fast API service. Does Lumen support additional Composer packages and will your package work with Lumen as well?

Level 13

It seems that the $maps variable doesn't have any effect:

// Definition
protected $maps = [
    'number' => 'bad_number_column',
    'customer_number' => 'bad_customer_number_column',
    'customer_name' => 'bad_customer_name_column',
    'date' => 'bad_date_column',
];

// dd(Customer::all()->first()->toArray())
[
    'bad_number_column' => 123,
    'bad_customer_number_column' => 'XYZ12345',
    'bad_customer_name_column' => 'An amazing company name',
    'bad_date_column' => '2015-05-25 18:33:00',
]

Do you have an idea?

Level 13

@JarekTkaczyk Short update: I did try it with Laravel 5 instead of Lumen, too. Same result. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Best Answer

Level 53

@bart If you want to simply rename the columns and use the aliases in toArray representation, use this mix:

$maps = ['bad_number_column' => 'number', 'bad_date_column' => 'date'];

$hidden = ['bad_number_column', 'bad_date_column'];

$appends = ['number', 'date'];

then you will get:

// dd(Customer::all()->first()->toArray())
[
    'number' => 123,
    'date' => '2015-05-25 18:33:00',
    ...
]

I assume this is what you wanted. Let me know otherwise.

3 likes

Level 13

Yeah, that is what I want, thank you @JarekTkaczyk. I will try it out as soon as I'm back home today but I'm pretty sure it will work :)

Level 13

Just for your information @JarekTkaczyk: I tried your solution and it works well. But one last question: How can I add an accessor to a mapped field? Here is an example:

protected $maps = [
    'number' => 'Number',
    'customer_number' => 'CustomerNumberOnBill',
    'customer_name' => 'The customer name',
    'date' => 'Date of invoice',
];
protected $visible = ['number', 'customer_number', 'customer_name', 'date'];
protected $appends = ['number', 'customer_number', 'customer_name', 'date'];

public function getDateAttribute() {
    return 'foo';
}

Customer::all()->first()->date returns the original date, but I'm expecting "foo" here.

Any idea? Thanks a lot!

1 like

Level 53

@bart :)

It's impossible to achieve with generic mutators, because of the order of things that must happen there. Thing is, eloquent returns null (or in your case foo) and then it's mapped, so the value is overriden. Order cannot be changed.

But, what I can suggest is using Mutable:

// your model
use Eloquence, Mappable, Mutable;

// maps, hidden like before, additionally:
protected $getterMutators = [
    'date' => 'Your\Model@theMutator'
];

public function theMutator($date)
{
    return 'foo';
}

In place of theMutator you can use any of:

internal php function
user global function
public static method on any class
public instance method on any instantiable class
extension (macro) on the Sofa\Eloquence\Mutator

Plus you can use pipe separated multiple functions: strtolower | ucwords | theMutator.

To extend the mutator do something like:

// in a service provider:
$this->app['eloquence.mutator']->macro('ucname', function ($name) {
    return preg_replace_callback('/(?<=^|\-|\s)([a-z])/', function ($matches) {
        return strtoupper($matches[0]);
    }, strtolower($name));
});
// anywhere else:
app('eloquence.mutator')->...

Level 13

Thank you so much @JarekTkaczyk :) As yesterday I'll try it out as soon as possible today. Thought it won't work due to the request chronology of Laravel. Found you Mutable extension on github but no documentation in the Wiki so I thought it hasn't been finished yet. Good to know, that this is not the case :)

Level 53

@bart Everything that is pushed to the package repo is already 99-100% complete, but the docs are not :) I'm preparing a few short vids, since it is by far the easiest way to get a grasp of how things work.

1 like

bobbybouwmann

Level 88

@JarekTkaczyk Can't wait :P