Laravel: performing some task on every insert/update when using Query Builder or Eloquent ORM

Question

The Problem

I would like to automatically add created_by and modified_by fields to every insert/update to a database table in Laravel 4, regardless of whether I am using Eloquent or Query Builder. However, not all my tables have these fields so any solution will have to check these columns exist before adding.

Attempted Solution

I have extended the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model class and written an overwrite method save() in order to add some additional meta data fields for every record that is saved.

This is fine except that if I perform an insert using the Query Builder then this is bypassed. Looking at the Model class it appears that the database operations are actually done using the query builder.

I have had a look at the Illuminate\Database\Query\Builder model and it looks like I could probably write overwrite methods for insert() and update().

Is this a sensible way to go about performing some task for every insert/update or will I run into trouble later down the line?

Answer 1

In Laravel if you like to call a single method on each save/update from a single point without making any additional changes in each of the extended Models, you can have a custom listener for eloquent events. As documetation says it can be done only for per Model. But creating a custom listener allows to access any event in any Model.

Just add a listener to the boot() method in EventServiceProvider like below and modify accordingly.

Event::listen(['eloquent.saving: *', 'eloquent.creating: *'], function(){
        //your method content
        //returning false will cancel saving the model
 });

Please note that wildcard used to match any model. See documentation for more on events.

Answer 2

Adding to the above answers. You could do something like this.

Create a class in app/models called BaseModel.php extending \Eloquent

class BaseModel extends \Eloquent{

public static function boot()
{
    parent::boot();

    static::creating(function($model)
    {
        //change to Auth::user() if you are using the default auth provider
        $user = Confide::user();
        $model->created_by = $user->id;
        $model->updated_by = $user->id;
    });

    static::updating(function($model)
    {
        //change to Auth::user() if you are using the default auth provider
        $user = Confide::user();
        $model->updated_by = $user->id;
    });
  }

}

Then in your individual model classes you need to extent the BaseModel instead of \Eloquent

class Product extends BaseModel {

    protected $table = 'product';

    //Booting the base model to add created_by and updated_by to all tables
    public static function boot()
    {
        parent::boot();
    }

}

Now any time you save or update a model, the created_by and updated_by fields would be updated automatically.

Note: This would only work when save or update is done through Eloquent. For query builder, you could have a common method to fetch and append the created_by and update_by column updates.