Where should I be saving a model in Laravel MVC?

Question

I'm trying to get a more concrete understanding of MVC and keeping the controller layer as thin as possible.

One thing I keep asking myself is "Where should I call modelname->save()?"

Looking at the Laravel documentation, they set data to the model and call save in the controller which doesn't seem right...

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Flight;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class FlightController extends Controller
{
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        // Validate the request...

        $flight = new Flight;

        $flight->name = $request->name;

        $flight->save();
    }
}

This is quite a simple example and might be why they do it all in the controller.

From my understanding and everything I've been reading, all business logic should sit inside the model, the controller is responsible for "traffic control" between the view and the model.

So would I be calling save inside the model itself? or should I be using a service layer?

---

Here is my current problem with example data.

I am updating the status of a model. The row already exists in the DB. I use PATCH /route/ to get to the controller method. From there I get the model.

class TimecardController extends Controller {
...
    public function markAsPass(Request $request, $id) {
        $test = Test::findOrFail($id);

        //I don't think this is the corect way  
        //$test->status = "passed";
        //$test->markedBy = "Teacher123";
        //$test->save();


        $test->passed();
        ...
        return redirect($redirect_url);
    }
}

class Test extends Model {
...
    public function passed() {
        $this->status = "passed";

        //would I call save here? 
        //$this->save();
    }
}

Do I take an approach like above? Or do I create a service layer where I would use the model instance to call the model functions and then call save on the model?

//in service class
public function makeTestAsPassed($test){
    $test->passed();
    $test->save();

}

Please let me know if any claification is needed.

Answer 1

You’re right in that business logic belongs in models. If you take a “resourceful” approach to your applications (in that you create controllers around entities) then you’ll find that your controller actions seldom call more than one model method.

Instead of calling save(), you can call create() and update() methods on your model. In your store() controller action, you can create a new entity with one line like this:

public function store(CreateRequest $request)
{
    $model = Model::create($request->all());
}

And update an existing model in an update() action like this:

public function update(UpdateRequest $request, Model $model)
{
    $model->update($request->all());
}

When it comes to business logic, you can call other methods on your models, too. To use resourceful controllers, you don’t have to have a model that relates to a database table.

Take shipping an order. Most people would be tempted to put a ship() method in an OrderController, but what happens when you ship an order? What entity could shipping an order result in? Well, you’d be creating a shipment, so that could instead be a store() method on an OrderShipmentController. This store() method could then just call a ship() method on your Order model:

class OrderShipmentController extends Controller
{
    public function store(ShipOrderRequest $request, Order $order)
    {
        $order->ship();
    }
}

So as you can see, with resourceful controllers and route–model binding, you can have “skinny controllers” with your application’s business logic living in your models.