Laravel moderate errors on save()

Question

In this sample code below how would I moderate errors such as Eloquent could not save or update fields or break SQL connection?

$user = new User;

$user->name = 'John';

$user->save();

Answer 1

The save() method for eloquent returns a boolean on failure and a collection object on success, so you can display an error if the save() method returns false;

For example:

$user = new User;

$user->name = 'John';

if($user->save()){
    return Redirect::to('users')->with('message', sprintf('User: "%s" successfully saved', $user->name));
} else{
    return Redirect::to('users')->with('message', 'Failed to create user');
}

Here's the eloquent save function in detail:

http://laravel.com/api/5.1/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Model.html#method_save

You may also want to look at model events:

http://laravel.com/docs/5.1/eloquent#events

EDIT: For your other question to catch a database connection error you can use a try/catch block such as:

try{
    if (Auth::attempt(array('email' => $email, 'password' => $password))){
        return Redirect::to('dashboard');
    } else{
        //Authentication failed
        return Redirect::to('home')->with('message', 'Authentication failed, username/password inccorrect');
    }
} catch(PDOException $e){
    return Redirect::to('home')->with('message', sprintf('Failed to connect to database: %s', $e));
}