Exploring Attribute-Based Column Mapping in Laravel ORM

[cxlblm]

When using Laravel ORM, a common issue is that we often need to rely on PHPDoc annotations to describe the properties of a model. Is it possible for Laravel to introduce something like an attribute-based mapping in the ORM, such as #[Column('id')], to decouple database column names from object property names?

This way, we could directly map database fields to differently named properties on the model, which would make the overall usage feel more convenient and expressive.

/**
 * @property int $id
 * @property string $name
 * @property string $uuid
 * @property string $updated_by
 * @property string $created_by
 * @property CarbonImmutable $updated_at
 * @property CarbonImmutable $created_at
 */
class Clazz extends Model
{
    protected $table = 'clazz';

    protected $fillable = [
        'id',
        'name',
        'uuid',
        'updated_by',
        'created_by',
    ];

    protected function casts(): array
    {
        return [
            'id' => 'int',
            'name' => 'string',
            'uuid' => 'string',
            'updated_by' => 'string',
            'created_by' => 'string',
            'updated_at' => 'immutable_date',
            'created_at' => 'immutable_date',
        ];
    }
}

We could introduce attribute-based mappings:

class Clazz extends Model
{
    protected $table = 'clazz';

    #[Column('name')]
    public string $name;

    #[Column('uuid')]
    public string $uuid;

    #[Column('updated_by')]
    public string $updated_by;

    #[Column('created_by')]
    public string $created_by;


    protected $fillable = [
        'id',
        'name',
        'uuid',
        'updated_by',
        'created_by',
    ];

    protected function casts(): array
    {
        return [
            'id' => 'int',
            'name' => 'string',
            'uuid' => 'string',
            'updated_by' => 'string',
            'created_by' => 'string',
            'updated_at' => 'immutable_date',
            'created_at' => 'immutable_date',
        ];
    }
}

[shaedrich]

If I understand correctly what you're trying to achieve, then this can already be done via Eloquent attributes (accessors) rather than their native PHP namesake:

    /**
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\Attribute<callable(): string, callable(string): array{first_name: string}>
     */
    public function givenName(): Attribute
    {
        return Attribute::make(
            get: fn (): string => $this->first_name,
            set: fn (string $value): array => ['first_name' => $value],
        );
    }