Laravel Json Attributes for Eloquent Models

Author

Denis Mitrofanov
thecollection.ru

Requirements

PHP 7.2 or higher MYSQL 5.7 or higher or POSTGRES (the one I tested it on is 9.6) probably any 9.* version or higher will do

Installation

composer require denismitr/laravel-json-attributes

In Laravel 5.5 the service provider will automatically get registered. In older versions of the framework just add the service provider in config/app.php file:

'providers' => [
    // ...
    Denismitr\JsonAttributes\JsonAttributesServiceProvider::class,
];

Usage

1. First add a jsonData column to your table

Schema::create('orders', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->increments('id');
    $table->string('description');
    $table->jsonData('json_data');
});

Underneath $table->jsonData('json_data'); is just $table->json('json_data')->nullable().

Examples of usage:

$array = [
    'supplier' => 'Boeing',
    'total_cost' => 245.99,
];

$record = Record::create(['json_data' => $array]);

$this->assertEquals($array, $record->json_data->all());
$this->assertEquals('Boeing', $record->json_data->supplier);
$this->assertEquals('Boeing', $record->json_data['supplier']);

Another examples with Laravel dot notation

$this->record->json_data->member = ['name' => 'John', 'age' => 30];
$this->record->json_data->forget('member.age');
$this->assertEquals($this->record->json_data->member, ['name' => 'John']);

$this->record->json_data->set('settings.connection', 'mysql');
$this->record->json_data->set('colors.navbar', 'dark');

$this->assertEquals('mysql', $this->record->json_data->get('settings.connection'));
$this->assertEquals('dark', $this->record->json_data->get('colors.navbar'));

You can assign a whole array

$array = [
    'one' => 'value',
    'two' => 'another value',
];

$this->record->json_data->array = $array;

$this->assertEquals($array, $this->record->json_data->array);

Searching

Since version 1.0 nested search is available

$recordA = Record::create(['json_data' => [
    'company' => 'Ecommelite',
    'user' => [
        'name' => 'Denis',
        'job_title' => 'developer'
    ]
]]);

$recordB = Record::create(['json_data' => [
    'company' => 'Ecommelite',
    'user' => [
        'name' => 'Tom',
        'job_title' => 'developer'
    ]
]]);

$recordC = Record::create(['json_data' => [
    'company' => 'Ecommelite',
    'address' => [
        'street' => '1st Street',
        'phone' => 1234556
    ]
]]);

$this->assertContainsModels(
    [$recordA],
    Record::withJsonData(['user.name' => 'Denis'])->get()
);

$this->assertContainsModels(
    [$recordA, $recordB],
    Record::withJsonData(['user.job_title' => 'developer'])->get()
);

$this->assertContainsModels(
    [$recordA, $recordB],
    Record::withJsonData(['user.job_title' => 'developer', 'company' => 'Ecommelite'])->get()
);

$this->assertContainsModels(
    [$recordA],
    Record::withJsonData([
        'user.job_title' => 'developer',
        'company' => 'Ecommelite',
        'user.name' => 'Denis'
    ])->get()
);

$this->assertContainsModels(
    [$recordA, $recordB],
    Record::withJsonData('user.job_title', 'developer')->get()
);

$this->assertContainsModels(
    [], Record::withJsonData(['non.existent' => 'record'])->get()
);

To see more look at the tests.

Eloquent Model

First of all you need to cast the json attributes to array Here is how the Record model from test suite looks like:

use Denismitr\JsonAttributes\JsonAttributes;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Record extends Model
{
    protected $casts = ['json_data' => 'array'];

    /**
     * @return JsonAttributes
     */
    public function getJsonDataAttribute(): JsonAttributes
    {
        return JsonAttributes::create($this, 'json_data');
    }

    /**
     * @return Builder
     */
    public function scopeWithJsonData(): Builder
    {
        return JsonAttributes::scopeWithJsonAttributes('json_data');
    }
}

Persistence works regularly just like with any other Eloquent model