two importers for same model?

Certainly! Here's a clear approach for having two separate importers for the same Contract model: one for creating and one for updating. You might be using a package like Laravel Excel for imports, but the architectural pattern stands with or without a package.

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Approach Summary:

1. CreateNewContractsImporter: Only creates new Contract records, ignores existing ones.
2. UpdateExistingContractsImporter: Only updates existing Contract records, ignores new ones.

Your first is already built (CreateNewContractsImporter). Here’s how you could structure the update-only importer:

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Update Only Importer

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\ToModel;
use App\Models\Contract;

class UpdateExistingContractsImporter implements ToModel
{
    public function model(array $row)
    {
        // Assume your unique identifier is in $row[0], adjust as necessary
        $contract = Contract::where('contract_number', $row[0])->first();

        // Only update if contract exists
        if ($contract) {
            $contract->update([
                'field1' => $row[1],
                'field2' => $row[2],
                // ... other fields
            ]);
        }

        // If you always need to return a model or null:
        return null;
    }
}

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Tips

• Make sure the "unique identifier" is the same as used in your system (id, contract_number, etc.).
• No new record is created here; .update() only fires for existing.
• Returning null (or just void) is okay if your importer supports it―otherwise, return the updated model.
• If you need validation, consider implementing WithValidation or similar concerns.

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Optional: Validation to Ensure No New Contracts

If you want to be extra safe:

if (!$contract) {
    // Optionally, log or collect errors about "missing contracts"
    return null; // Or throw an exception if you prefer
}

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Summary

• Keep two separate importer classes, each with a very explicit, limited responsibility.
• Creation: Only insert new records (skip/update errors if record exists).
• Update: Only update existing records (skip/memo errors if not found).

This maximizes clarity and keeps your logic separation just as your client requested.

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If you need a more specific example (like for a plain PHP upload script), let me know!