Laravel Base Repository

An abstract repository class for your Eloquent repositories that requires minimal config to get started.

Features

• 2 minute setup.
• 10 useful methods out of the box such as getById.
• Flexible relationship support including eager loading..
• Optional easy to use Caching.
• Optional 404 exceptions when items aren't found.

Quick Start

Install via Composer.

composer require dannyweeks/laravel-base-repository

Extend your repositories with Weeks\Laravel\Repositories\BaseEloquentRepository.

Add the $model property to your repository so the base repository knows what model to use.

    namespace App\Repositories;
 
    class PostRepository extends \Weeks\Laravel\Repositories\BaseEloquentRepository
    {
        protected $model = \App\Models\Post::class;
    }

That's it! Let's test it out.

    $repo = new App\Repositories\PostRepository();
    var_dump($repo->getById(1)); // Returns the Post with an ID of 1.
    var_dump($repo->getAll()); // Returns a collection of all your posts.

Usage

Your repositories must extend the BaseEloquentRepository class and have the properties:

• protected $model: the name of your model (including it's namespace)
• protected $relationships: (Optional) an array of the methods available to be included when retrieving items.

    $posts = new App\Repositories\PostRepository();
    $firstPost = $posts->getById(1);
    $allPosts = $posts->getAll();
    $allPostsIncludingComments = $posts->with('comments')->getAll();

Be sure to check out the example.

Available Methods

See the repository interface class for the full API.

Relationships

Relationships are defined in the repository but are not eagerly loaded automatically.

Relationships can be loaded in the following three ways using the with() method:

• $postRepository->with('all')->getAll(); retrieve all relationships defined in the repository class
• $postRepository->with(['comments', 'author'])->getAll(); retrieve relationships using an array
• $postRepository->with('comments')->getAll(); retrieve relationship using a string

An Example

This example shows how your model, repository and controller could be set up.

app\Models\Post.php

    namespace App\Models;

    class Post extends Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model
    {
        public function comments()
        {
            return $this->hasMany('App\Models\Comment');
        }

        public function author()
        {
            return $this->hasOne('App\Models\User');
        }
    }
    

app\Repositories\PostRepository.php

    namespace App\Repositories;
    
    use Weeks\Laravel\Repositories\BaseEloquentRepository;
    
    class PostRepository extends BaseEloquentRepository
    {
        protected $model = App\Models\Post::class;
        protected $relationships = ['comments', 'author'];
    }

app\Http\Controllers\PostController.php

    namespace App\Http\Controllers;
    
    use App\Repositories\PostRepository;
    
    class PostController extends Controller
    {
        protected $posts;
        
        public function __construct(PostRepository $posts) 
        {
            $this->posts = $posts;
        }
        
        public function show($id)
        {
            // get the post and eagerly load the comments for it too.
            $post = $this->posts->with('comments')->getById($id);
            
            return view('posts.show', compact('post'));
        }
    }

HTTP Exceptions

To enable http exceptions (like Eloquent's findOrFail method) on a repository just have it use \Weeks\Laravel\Repositories\Traits\ThrowsHttpExceptions;.

If the below methods return null they will throw a 404 error instead of returning null.

getById
getItemByColumn

An example using the ThrowsHttpExceptions trait.

    namespace App\Repositories;
    
    use Weeks\Laravel\Repositories\BaseEloquentRepository;
    use Weeks\Laravel\Repositories\Traits\ThrowsHttpExceptions;
    
    class PostRepository extends BaseEloquentRepository
    {
        use ThrowsHttpExceptions;
        
        protected $model = App\Models\Post::class;
    }

You can temporarily disable HTTP exceptions by chaining disableHttpExceptions() before performing a query. For example:

$posts = new PostRepository();

$post = $posts->disableHttpExceptions()->getById(1000); // returns null rather than throwing a 404 error.

Caching

To enable caching on a repository just have it use \Weeks\Laravel\Repositories\Traits\CacheResults;.

By doing this all the repository 'read' methods cache their results using Laravel's caching system.

// Methods that cache when using the CacheResults trait.
getAll
getPaginated
getForSelect
getById
getItemByColumn
getCollectionByColumn
getActively

An example using the CacheResults trait.

    namespace App\Repositories;
    
    use Weeks\Laravel\Repositories\BaseEloquentRepository;
    use Weeks\Laravel\Repositories\Traits\CacheResults;
    
    class PostRepository extends BaseEloquentRepository
    {
        use CacheResults;
        
        protected $model = App\Models\Post::class;
        protected $relationships = ['comments', 'author'];
        protected $nonCacheableMethods = ['getById'];
        protected $cacheTtl = 30;
    }

You can force the result of a request not to be cached by adding the method name to the $nonCacheableMethods property of your repository. See example above.

By default the ttl of a cache item is 60 minutes. This can be overwritten by updating the $cacheTtl property of your repository. See example above.

Caching can be disabled programatically by calling disabledCaching() on your repository. This method returns the repository to enable method chaining e.g. $repo->disableCaching()->getAll();.