About making Eloquent event

[kudashevs]

The idea is to add a making event to the Eloquent model which is going to be bound to the Model::make() method (as the creating event is bound to the Model::create() method). Why the framework needs it?

Use case
Let's assume, there is a Post model and we want to automatically generate a slug from a title (when a slug is not provided). I tried to implement this functionality through Mutators (but it doesn't work because you need to call a slug explicitly to mutate it) and through the constructor (but I didn't find a way to access the models' attributes in there - it seems there is no way to do it).

The only working way, which I've found, is to use the Model events with closures to adjust the slug.

class Post extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;

    protected $fillable = [
        'title',
        'slug',
    ];

    protected static function booted()
    {
        static::creating(function ($tag) {
            $tag->slug = str()->slug($tag->slug ?? $tag->title);
        });
    }
}

This works for the create() method,

// \App\Models\Post::create(['title' => 'new title']);
App\Models\Post {
    title: "new title",
    slug: "new-title",
  }

but this does not work for the make() method.

// \App\Models\Post::make(['title' => 'new title']);
App\Models\Post {
    title: "new title",
  }

, it's not possible to have the symmetrical behavior for Post::make() and Post::create() because no events are bound to make.

Btw, my use case is not unique. There are other cases related to the dynamic attributes generation, for example:

• default attributes with random values
• generation of unique codes for each user

I would like to propose to add the making event and bound it to the Model::make() method. It seems logical for this event to exist.

[ahinkle]

What's your use case for a theoretical making event?

Typically saving, saved, created, or creating satisfies everything I've come across in applications.

[ahinkle]

https://laravel.com/docs/11.x/eloquent-mutators#defining-a-mutator

public function setSlugAttribute($value)
{
    $this->attributes['slug'] = $value ?? str()->slug($this->title);
}

[kudashevs]

https://laravel.com/docs/11.x/eloquent-mutators#defining-a-mutator

public function setSlugAttribute($value)
{
    $this->attributes['slug'] = $value ?? str()->slug($this->title);
}

@ahinkle Have you tried your code example? It simply doesn't work with the create only.

Let's try both ways of writing Mutators (the old one and the new one). It will be clearer what I'm talking about .

The old one

    public function setSlugAttribute($value)
    {
        var_dump('triggered');
        $slug = $value ?? str()->slug($this->title);
        $this->attributes['slug'] = $slug;
    }

Product creation:

$product = \App\Models\Product::create(['title' => 'Unique product']);

results into:

Illuminate\Database\QueryException  SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 19 NOT NULL constraint failed
: products.slug (Connection: sqlite, SQL: insert into "products" ("title", "published_at", "updated_at", "created_at"
) values (Unique product, 2024-12-23 13:59:58, 2024-12-23 13:59:58, 2024-12-23 13:59:58)).

The new one

    protected function slug(): Attribute
    {
        return Attribute::make(
            set: function ($value, array $attributes) {
                var_dump('triggered');
                $slug = $value ?? str()->slug($attributes['title']);
                $this->attributes['slug'] = $slug;
            },
        );
    }

results into:

  Illuminate\Database\QueryException  SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 19 NOT NULL constraint failed
: products.slug (Connection: sqlite, SQL: insert into "products" ("title", "published_at", "updated_at", "created_at"
) values (Unique product, 2024-12-23 14:02:13, 2024-12-23 14:02:13, 2024-12-23 14:02:13)).

So, as you can see, in both cases the Mutators weren't even triggered.
To make your code work (as I described earlier) you must access the property directly.

> $product = \App\Models\Product::make(['title' => 'Unique product']);
= App\Models\Product {
    title: "Unique product",
  }

then it will be mutated.

 $product->slug;
 // string(9) "triggered"
App\Models\Product {
    title: "Unique product",
    slug: "unique-product",
  }

If you don't access it, it doesn't mutate. So, the only possible way to make it work, which I've found, is through events.

Did I miss something?

[kudashevs]

So we don't want extra events to listen to, we want create and make also use the mutators where needed? You spotted a possible bug?

Sorry, I don't quite understand your question. Who are we? Why we don't want extra events?
I wrote the opposite, I want this extra event. The event looks promising and it will be useful for the community.

[henzeb]

I am trying to understand what you are trying to do. You want to have a title that has a slug created on "make". That doesn't work the way you thought it would work and now you want events. you don't need events.

class Post extends Model  {

    protected $fillable = ['name'];

    public function name(): Attribute
    {
        return Attribute::make(
            set: fn(string $name) => [
                'name' => $name,
                'slug' => Str::slug($name)
            ]
        );
    }
}

dd(
    Post::make([
        'name' => 'my name',
    ])->toArray()
);

# not touching it: 
#  array:2 [
#   "name" => "my name"
#   "slug" => "my-name"
# ]

dd(
    Post::make([
        'name' => 'my name',
    ])->slug
);

# output: "my-name"

I am pretty sure this will do what you wanted it to do. I am also pretty confident by setting the attribute in the "get" when empty/not set also works for the other use cases with random values and unique values .

[kudashevs]

I am trying to understand what you are trying to do. You want to have a title that has a slug created on "make". That doesn't work the way you thought it would work and now you want events. you don't need events.

@henzeb Answering your question. I try to make a slug being generated from the provided title whenever the Model is made (e.g. Model::make()).

I really want to appreciate your help and your solution that kind of work. But it works! Thank you very much for providing it!

Why the solution kind of works:

• the first reason: it is based on mutating the name (title or whatever), but not the slug. One may say that this is a nitpicking, but to me it looks kind of odd (we mutate the name to have the slug matated - not really obvious)
• the second reason: this solution does not work in Tinker (I tried both 10 and 11 versions). It does work in Tinker.

Other than that, this is a working solution and I'm going to use it as a workaround. Thank you very much, once again!

[kudashevs]

Since there is no much interest in the new event and there is a workaround (thanks to @henzeb) , I better close the discussion.