Asking for suggestions on how to deal with dynamic model attributes and mass assignment

Hi all,

Im currently building a CMS type system where i have a MODEL called Publications which can have custom fields added. Im using MongoDB for some of my Models, including PUBLICATIONS and UserDefinedAttributes models, which allows for schema-less tables (collections) and allows for on-demand creation of fields in tables (collections).

So imagine you have the following situation, you have a set of COMMON ATTRIBUTES, like:

• title
• publicationType [article, research paper, white paper, commentary, review, etc]
• publicationDate
• abstract
• authors (array of many authors)
• and a lot more...

*** and then some PUBLICATIONS would need some additional data stored with some records... but the problem is that its very difficult to predict and figure out ALL POSSIBLE ATTRIBUTES... so there is a need to allow to create custom attributes and be able to use them when creating PUBLICATIONS records.

So in order to do that, there is an additional MODEL called "User Defined Attributes" which allows the creation of attributes of type STRING. The purpose of this additional MODEL is to be able to validate against all possible EXPECTED fields during FormRequest Validation.

PublicationStoreRequest

<?php
namespace App\Http\Requests;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
class PublicationStoreRequest  extends FormRequest
{
    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        $commonAttrs = [
            'title' => 'required|string|max:255',
            'publicationType' => 'required|string',
            'authors' => 'required|array',
            'publicationDate' => 'required|date',
            etc
            etc
            etc
        ];

        // QUESTION: How do i get a list of UserDefinedAttributes and assign it to $customAttrs
        // all of CustomAttrs are optional and of type string with max 255 chars;
        // so structure of the $customAttrs will be like this $customAttrs = ['customAttrX' => 'nullable|string|max:255']
        // $customAttrs = getCustomAttrs(); // how to get dynamically?

        $expectedAttrs = array_merge($commonAttrs, $customAttrs);

        return $expectedAttrs;
    }

     /**
     * Custom message for validation
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function messages()
    {
        return [
            'title.required' => 'title is required!',
            'publicationType.required' => 'publicationType is required!',
            'authors.required' => 'authors is required!'
        ];
    }
}

Now for my PUBLICATIONS, im not sure if i can set DYNAMICALLY which fields are FILLABLE, so i figure ANYTHING EXPECTED is FILLABLE except what is $GUARDED...

Publication Model

<?php
 
namespace App\Models;
 
use MongoDB\Laravel\Eloquent\Model as MongoModel;
 
class Publication extends MongoModel
{
    /**
     * The table associated with the model.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $collection = 'publications';

    /**
     * The attributes that aren't mass assignable.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $guarded = ['user_id', 'institution_id'];
}

and finally my Controller.... PublicationsController

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers\Publications;

use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use App\Http\Requests\PublicationStoreRequest;
use App\Models\Publication;

class PublicationsController extends Controller
{
    public function store(PublicationStoreRequest $request)
    {
        // Will return only validated data        
        $validatedData = $request->validated();

        Publication::create($validatedData);
        return back()->with('successfulCreate', 'New Publication added successfully.');
    }
}

Any and all suggestions/comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!