Add a custom attribute to a Laravel / Eloquent model on load?

Question

I'd like to be able to add a custom attribute/property to an Laravel/Eloquent model when it is loaded.

For instance, at the moment, in my controller I have:

public function index()
{
    $sessions = EventSession::all();
    foreach ($sessions as $i => $session) {
        $sessions[$i]->available = $session->getAvailability();
    }
    return $sessions;
}

It would be nice to be able to omit the loop and have the 'available' attribute already set and populated.

I've tried using some of the model events described in the documentation to attach this property when the object loads, but without success so far.

Notes:

'available' is not a field in the underlying table.
$sessions is being returned as a JSON object as part of an API, and therefore calling something like $session->available() in a template isn't an option

What is the code stands for getAvailability method? If it is possible to calculate on SQL side maybe then better add a custom field into select? — Igor Popov
– Igor Popov, Commented Aug 12, 2022 at 1:16
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model as MysqlModel; use Basemkhirat\Elasticsearch\Model as EsModel; class BaseModel extends EsModel{ } how we can change dynamically extend derive in Laravel model?? In this case, in configuration, we use elastic search if we want to change the driver to MySQL we need to manually change the driver? is there any way to change it from configuration ? — Muhammad Awais Zulifqar
– Muhammad Awais Zulifqar, Commented Aug 17, 2022 at 18:49

coatesap · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-30 12:16:07Z

422

The problem is caused by the fact that the Model's toArray() method ignores any accessors which do not directly relate to a column in the underlying table.

As Taylor Otwell mentioned here, "This is intentional and for performance reasons." However there is an easy way to achieve this:

class EventSession extends Eloquent {

    protected $table = 'sessions';

    public function availability()
    {
        return new Attribute(
            get: fn () => $this->calculateAvailability()
        );  
    }
}

Laravel versions < 8:

Any attributes listed in the $appends property will automatically be included in the array or JSON form of the model, provided that you've added the appropriate accessor.

class EventSession extends Eloquent {

    protected $table = 'sessions';
    protected $appends = array('availability');

    public function getAvailabilityAttribute()
    {
        return $this->calculateAvailability();  
    }
}

Laravel versions < 4.08:

The best solution that I've found is to override the toArray() method and either explicity set the attribute:

class Book extends Eloquent {

    protected $table = 'books';
    
    public function toArray()
    {
        $array = parent::toArray();
        $array['upper'] = $this->upper;
        return $array;
    }
    
    public function getUpperAttribute()
    {
        return strtoupper($this->title);    
    }

}

or, if you have lots of custom accessors, loop through them all and apply them:

class Book extends Eloquent {

    protected $table = 'books';
    
    public function toArray()
    {
        $array = parent::toArray();
        foreach ($this->getMutatedAttributes() as $key)
        {
            if ( ! array_key_exists($key, $array)) {
                $array[$key] = $this->{$key};   
            }
        }
        return $array;
    }
    
    public function getUpperAttribute()
    {
        return strtoupper($this->title);    
    }

}

edited Jan 30, 2024 at 12:16

answered Jun 22, 2013 at 11:51

coatesap

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6 Comments

Gayan Hewa Over a year ago

Best question and answer for today. I was working on different implementations on how to achieve this and just before posting an question on laravel.io i found this ! yay !!!

Jordi Puigdellívol Over a year ago

And is there a way to don't add them to json for just some cases?

Andrew Over a year ago

These customs attributes don't seem to appear when calling the model through a relationship. (Ex: Models\Company::with('people')). Any idea?

junkystu Over a year ago

@JordiPuigdellívol In Laravel 5, you can use the protected $hidden = [] to add columns/accessors to have exluded.

user16780927 Over a year ago

Good day, Sir. I am wondering if my case here is sort of achievable by this kind of solution. May I ask for some help from you, my kind Sir?

|

James · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-08 06:01:30Z

140

The last thing on the Laravel Eloquent doc page is:

protected $appends = array('is_admin');

That can be used automatically to add new accessors to the model without any additional work like modifying methods like ::toArray().

Just create getFooBarAttribute(...) accessor and add the foo_bar to $appends array.

edited Jun 8, 2018 at 6:01

James

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answered Sep 30, 2013 at 7:22

trm42

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3 Comments

coatesap Over a year ago

Ah interesting. This feature has been added to Laravel since my question was posted (github.com/laravel/framework/commit/…). This is right answer for anyone using v4.08 or higher.

gpmcadam Over a year ago

This won't be available to you if you're using relationships to generate the content for your accessors. In this instance, you may have to resort to overriding the toArray method.

mibbler Over a year ago

It seems as though the documentation that you referred to has been moved to here: https://laravel.com/docs/5.5/eloquent-serialization.

Jazerix · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-16 20:21:24Z

43

If you rename your getAvailability() method to getAvailableAttribute() your method becomes an accessor and you'll be able to read it using ->available straight on your model.

Docs: https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/eloquent-mutators#accessors-and-mutators

EDIT: Since your attribute is "virtual", it is not included by default in the JSON representation of your object.

But I found this: Custom model accessors not processed when ->toJson() called?

In order to force your attribute to be returned in the array, add it as a key to the $attributes array.

class User extends Eloquent {
    protected $attributes = array(
        'ZipCode' => '',
    );

    public function getZipCodeAttribute()
    {
        return ....
    }
}

I didn't test it, but should be pretty trivial for you to try in your current setup.

edited Jul 16, 2017 at 20:21

Jazerix

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answered Jun 21, 2013 at 13:06

Alexandre Danault

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7 Comments

coatesap Over a year ago

This works in as much as it makes ->available available on the $session object, but as $sessions gets converted directly into a JSON string (it's part of an API), there isn't a chance to use this.

Alexandre Danault Over a year ago

I'm not sure I understand how your stuff works. If EventSession::all() returns a JSON object from an API, you are not really using a Laravel model, right? Sorry, I'm confused on how you implemented you model.

coatesap Over a year ago

EventSession is a standard Eloquent object (class EventSession extends Eloquent). ::all() is just as an example. EventSession::find(170071) would be another. These are called at various points throughout SessionController (SessionController extends \BaseController) which would be called via URLs such as '/sessions/170071'.

coatesap Over a year ago

I think the key may lie in Eloquent's built-in object to JSON conversion that takes place. Even if you add a custom attribute such as public $available to the model, this isn't shown when the object is converted.

Ronald Hulshof Over a year ago

This is available since the release of Laravel 4.0.8 on October 8th, 2013. See the official docs: laravel.com/docs/eloquent#converting-to-arrays-or-json (look for protected $appends = array('is_admin');)

|

Rohan Khude · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-05 11:13:40Z

31

I had something simular: I have an attribute picture in my model, this contains the location of the file in the Storage folder. The image must be returned base64 encoded

//Add extra attribute
protected $attributes = ['picture_data'];

//Make it available in the json response
protected $appends = ['picture_data'];

//implement the attribute
public function getPictureDataAttribute()
{
    $file = Storage::get($this->picture);
    $type = Storage::mimeType($this->picture);
    return "data:" . $type . ";base64," . base64_encode($file);
}

edited Sep 5, 2019 at 11:13

Rohan Khude

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answered Dec 29, 2015 at 22:26

Patrique

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Comments

Bedram Tamang · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-27 03:35:16Z

31

Step 1: Define attributes in $appends
Step 2: Define accessor for that attributes.
Example:

<?php
...

class Movie extends Model{

    protected $appends = ['cover'];

    //define accessor
    public function getCoverAttribute()
    {
        return json_decode($this->InJson)->cover;
    }

answered Mar 27, 2020 at 3:35

Bedram Tamang

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1 Comment

kodmanyagha Over a year ago

This is lifesaver answer. Unfortunately laravel doesnt load custom attributes.

jianfeng · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-28 07:59:08Z

20

you can use setAttribute function in Model to add a custom attribute

answered Oct 28, 2014 at 7:59

jianfeng

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Comments

ShuBham GuPta · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-23 12:26:25Z

13

Let say you have 2 columns named first_name and last_name in your users table and you want to retrieve full name. you can achieve with the following code :

class User extends Eloquent {


    public function getFullNameAttribute()
    {
        return $this->first_name.' '.$this->last_name;
    }
}

now you can get full name as:

$user = User::find(1);
$user->full_name;

answered Jan 23, 2019 at 12:26

ShuBham GuPta

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2 Comments

Natnael Ghirma Over a year ago

how did you go from getFullNameAttribute to full_name?

Eskay Amadeus Over a year ago

@natghi Laravel will strip away the "get" and "Attribute" leaving us with "FullName". Then it converts that to snake_case, hence full_name

Wai Ha Lee · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-21 23:46:23Z

4

In my subscription model, I need to know the subscription is paused or not. here is how I did it

public function getIsPausedAttribute() {
    $isPaused = false;
    if (!$this->is_active) {
        $isPaused = true;
    }
}

then in the view template,I can use $subscription->is_paused to get the result.

The getIsPausedAttribute is the format to set a custom attribute,

and uses is_paused to get or use the attribute in your view.

edited Sep 21, 2019 at 23:46

Wai Ha Lee

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answered Jun 19, 2017 at 14:51

li bing zhao

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Comments

Hanif Rifa'i · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-31 21:53:11Z

3

in my case, creating an empty column and setting its accessor worked fine. my accessor filling user's age from dob column. toArray() function worked too.

public function getAgeAttribute()
{
  return Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d', $this->attributes['dateofbirth'])->age;
}

edited Mar 31, 2016 at 21:53

answered Mar 31, 2016 at 19:19

Hanif Rifa'i

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Comments

Amin.Qarabaqi · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-14 06:31:40Z

2

In new versions of laravel, custom attributes is removed from documents but still is working.
It's possible that they be completely removed in the future.
The alternate and new approach is to use accessors:

protected function name(): Attribute
{
    return Attribute::make(
        get: fn () => $this->first_name . ' ' . $this->last_name,
    );
}

For accessing new attributes added use them like property:

return [
    'name' => $user->name
];

more information

answered Sep 14, 2023 at 6:31

Amin.Qarabaqi

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Comments

michael aberra · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-08 06:48:12Z

0

You can use map.

$user = User::all(); 
$user->map(function ($u) 
{ 
      $u['AttributeName'] = 'Attribute Value'; 
      return $u 
});

Then object user should have Attribute Name added to it

answered Mar 8, 2023 at 6:48

michael aberra

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