Eager loading a model method that is not a relationship?

Do you have an example of a bit of code or a use case which we use to help you with your challenge?

Sure. User.php:

// This you can easily eager load in your controller with User::with('patients');
    public function patients()
    {
        return $this->hasMany('App\Patient');
    }

// This you cannot eager load. When you do $user->isActive() it makes another query.
    public function isActive()
    {
        return $this->active;
    }

And active is a column in your users table? It shouldn't perform a new query at all here... If your code looks like this at least

// This will perform two queries. One for the user and one for fetch the patients.
$user = User::with('patients')->first();

// This won't perform a query at all
$user->isActive();

@bobbybouwmann right that makes sense. I guess a better example would be a method like this:

public function isIdentityVerified()
    {
        return (bool)$this->verifications()->verified()->first();
    }

Laravel will automatically cache fetch relations. So you can check if a relation is loaded or not

if ($this->relationLoaded('verifications')) {
    $this->verifications->verified()->first();
} else {
    $this->verifications()->verified()->first();
}

I feel that you are over complicating a lot of stuff. What is the verifications and verified doing? What kind of methods are that? Are they relations or just other checks?

Yes a User hasMany verifications. We check if the most recent is verified to decide if they are verified. But this is only one example. We have a hugely overloaded User model that I am refactoring. Trying to cut down on all database queries as much as possible.

for the above it is

    public function verifications()
    {
        return $this->hasMany('App\Verification')->orderBy('created_at', 'DESC');
    }

I am using the isVerified() as a helper method on the model but perhaps it just makes sense to do $user->verifications->first() from within the Controller instead and just do a few more checks? That way I can eager load verifications into user and the Controller can just check for the presence of the item.

Sounds like a plan. You can also automatically load the verifications for the user if you need it in multiple places. You can set the $with variable on your model to do so

class User extends Model
{
    /**
     * The relations to eager load on every query.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $with = ['verifications'];

    // The rest of your model
}