Laravel Tips from my recent projects

I been working for a few Laravel project recently, just to note down some of the interesting tips that I learn about recently

• It’s still ok to do multiple db connection pulling data , but is a nightmare if you need to pull with relation ( belongTo, hasMany etc) .
• Pulling the same name table from multiple db is really pain, because you can’t merge the collection if the records having the same keys.
• If you need extra attribute to return for a model , declare protected $append = array(‘additional parameter’) within the model , the model will now return with this new additional attribute.
• If you want to manipulate any return attribute , use getAttribute function, for example need a new shop name attribute , declare getShopNameAttribute function and you can follow up combine or modify the string as return result.
• Use the newQuery function within the model to using some condition by default, for example I have table with a removed field, so I can add this condition in the newQuery function to filter all records which have removed =1
• If you having a primary key which is not auto id , set the $incrementing = false within the model , if not when you save the record and the return result might be an empty primary key.
• the created_at, updated_at,deleted_at attribute name can be renamed.
• using findOrFail and do a catch-all event for all model not found exception can save quite a lot repeated code.

While working on Laravel project, try to poke around the source code , you might find some additional function which really helpful but didn’t mention on the documentation. Laracast is another good resource to learn more about Laravel.