Laravel Meta-Articles

The Framework for Meta enabled Laravel models.

Install

Via Composer

$ composer require glmdev/meta

Update the Laravel Framework

Add the following provider to config/app.php

'providers' => [
    Glmdev\Meta\MetaServiceProvider::class
]

Usage

When declaring a new model, extend the Meta model:

<?php

namespace App;

class Post extends Meta 
{
    // fillable, hidden, etc. arrays
}

Important: do not extend the Model class, Meta does this for you

The Meta plugin adds a custom Artisan command to auto-generate migrations for meta-enabled models. To generate a migration for a new meta-model, use the following command:

$ php artisan meta:migration name_of_migration --create=table_name

(The meta:migration command extends the make:migration, so it contains all of the original functionality.)

Add your custom fields, if any, then migrate as usual:

$ php artisan migrate

Then, just create a model like usual:

public function createPost () {
    $post = Post::create([
        // post data
    ]);
}

But now, you have access to a universal identifier for every model in the entire project.

You can check if a model has a UUID, and get it if it does:

$post->hasUuid(); // returns true or false
$post->getUuid(); // returns the UUID

The other big feature of the Meta model is saving meta information. This information is stored in the database in one column: 'meta'

To save meta information, use the 'write' method.

$post->write('author', 'Bob Saget');

And to retrieve meta information, use the 'read' method.

$post->read('author'); //returns 'Bob Saget'

Adding Meta functionality to existing models

To add Meta capabilities to existing models, you need to add the database columns and tweak the model's class as follows:

Database update

Create a new database migration using the custom Meta command:

$ php artisan meta:migration --table=existing_table_name

Make sure the inside of the up() function contains the formTable function:

public function up()
{
    Schema::table('existing_table_name', function (Blueprint $table) {
        Meta::formTable($table);
    });
}

Then, migrate:

$ php artisan migrate

Model Class updates

To enable the database functionality, the class for the model needs to extend the Meta class. Modify the class header to the following format:

class ClassNameHere extends Meta {
    // your class stuff here
}

Important: you no longer need to extend the Model class, Meta does this for you

After that, you can use the full meta functionality with your model.

Query Builder

Let's say you need to retrieve the post that has a certain UUID (maybe you gave it out in a url or something)

It's super easy to search for it:

Post::withUuid($uuid)->first();

It is completely integrated into the query builder, so you can still do stuff like:

Post::withUuid($uuid)->pluck('username');
Post::withUuid($uuid)->firstOrFail();

Credits

• Garrett Mills
• All Contributors

License and Copyright

Copyright (C) 2016 Garrett Mills

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
License, or any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Please see License File for more details.