Laravel Model Meta

Introduction

The Model Meta package for Laravel 5.3 allows you to easily store and retrieve meta data for any models. This package is an implementation of the Property Bag pattern, which is supposed to help you deal with the situations when you need to store various model properties (meta), but adding the properties to the model is not a viable option.

Installation

Composer

composer require dragosmocrii/model-meta

Laravel Provider

Next, you need to add the ModelMetaServiceProvider to your providers array in config/app.php :

/*
* Package Service Providers...
*/

DragoshMocrii\ModelMeta\ModelMetaServiceProvider::class,

Migrate & Publish resources

The Model Meta needs to set up its table. To do so, run php artisan migrate.

Next, run php artisan vendor:publish --provider="DragoshMocrii\ModelMeta\ModelMetaServiceProvider" to copy the vendor files to your application.

Configuration

Model Setup

To add the Model Meta functionality, you need to add the MetableFunctionality trait to your model like so:

use DragoshMocrii\ModelMeta\Traits\MetableFunctionality;

class Client extends Model {
	use MetableFunctionality;

}

Usage

Setting meta

bool metaSet(string $key, mixed $value, bool $force = true)

If $force is set to false, the meta will be saved to DB when the parent model is saved. Otherwise, the meta will be saved instantly.

Note: The $key needs to be a string, otherwise an Exception will be thrown.

Setting meta on a new model

$model = new MetableModel;
$model->metaSet( 'key', 'value' ); //at this time, the meta is not saved to the DB yet, because the model does not have a foreign key set yet
$model->save(); // meta will be saved when the model is saved

Setting meta on an existing model

$model = MetableModel::findOrFail( 1 );
$model->metaSet( 'key', 'value' ); //this meta will be saved to DB instantly

Setting multiple meta at once

bool metaSetMany(array $values, bool $force = true)

If $force is set to false, the meta will be saved to DB when the parent model is saved. Otherwise, the meta will be saved instantly.

Note: The $values parameter needs to be an associative array, where the key is a string. If these conditions are not met, an Exception will be thrown.

$model = new MetableModel;
$model->metaSetMany( [
	'key' => 'value',
	'foo' => 'bar'
] ); //at this time, the meta is not saved to the DB yet, because the model does not have a foreign key set yet
$model->save(); // meta will be saved when the model is saved

Retrieving meta

mixed metaGet(string|array $keys, null|mixed $default = null)

Note: The $default parameter will have effect when retrieving single meta only.

Getting single meta

$model      = MetableModel::findOrFail( 1 );
$meta_value = $model->metaGet( 'foo', 'bar' ); //returns the value of meta[foo] or 'bar' if meta[foo] does not exist

Getting multiple meta

$model = MetableModel::findOrFail( 1 );
$metas = $model->metaGet( [
	'key',
	'foo'
] ); //will return an associative array containing the values for the respective meta keys. if meta does not exist, it will be assigned with a null value

Getting all meta

mixed metaAll()

$model    = MetableModel::findOrFail( 1 );
$all_meta = $model->metaAll(); //returns an array containing all meta for the current model

Removing meta

metaRemove(string|array $keys)

Note: Meta will be removed from the DB instantly, unless the model is missing the foreign key.

Removing single meta

$model = MetableModel::findOrFail( 1 );
$model->metaRemove( 'key' );

Removing multiple meta

$model = MetableModel::findOrFail( 1 );
$model->metaRemove( [ 'key', 'foo' ] );

Check for meta

bool metaExists(string|array $keys, bool $return_missing = false)

If $return_missing is true, this will return an array containing the keys of missing meta. An empty array will be returned if no meta is missing.

Check for single meta

$model       = MetableModel::findOrFail( 1 );
$meta_exists = $model->metaExists( 'key' );

Check for multiple meta

$model       = MetableModel::findOrFail( 1 );
$meta_exists = $model->metaExists( [
	'key',
	'foo'
] ); //return true/false if $return_missing is false. Otherwise, returns an array containing the keys of the missing meta

Morph Map

By default, Laravel will use the fully qualified class name to store the type of the related model. If you would like to decouple the application internal structure from the database, you should define a morph map. Thus, if you change the model's class name, or extend the model and don't want to lose the related meta data, you would simply have to change the morph map.

To change the morph map, you need to edit the model_meta.morph_map configuration setting, for example:

'morph_map' => [
    'posts' => App\Post::class,
    'videos' => App\Video::class,
]

Preload all meta with single meta fetching

Sometimes you may call metaGet multiple times in your code. To avoid executing a DB query every time, you can tell Model Meta to preload all model meta when a single meta is retrieved, so that getting subsequent single metas will use the cache instead.

By default, Model Meta will preload the meta. If you would like to disable this, you can set the configuration model_meta.preload_on_get to false.

Model Meta & Laravel

The model meta uses polymorphic relationships to achieve its functionality. You can keep this in mind if you need to build complex queries.

For example, you can fetch meta for a model, using default Laravel methods:

$model       = MetableModel::findOrFail( 1 );
$metas       = $model->meta()->get()->toArray();
$single_meta = $model->meta()->where( 'key', 'keyname' )->get()->toArray();

Known issues

• Setting metas will do 2 queries for each meta. This is because Model Meta uses the updateOrCreate Laravel method, which executes 2 queries against the DB.
• At each meta retrieval, a DB query will be executed. Will fix this by eager loading the meta on the model.