Issue and possible solution with dynamic properties being treated as meta properties

[Francisco-Merchan]

Hello, I recently updated my Laravel project from version 8 to Laravel 11.

I had some issues trying to add dynamic properties, as when I do this, they are treated as metaproperties. For example:

$user = new User();
$user['test'] = 'test';

If the property $hideMeta = false; is set on the model, dynamically added properties are not displayed, in my case, when returning a JSON response.

The current solution to this issue is to add the property $disableFluentMeta = true; in the models that uses the Metable trait.

However, this prevents distinguishing between properties that should be added as meta and those that should be added dynamically.

Proposed Solution

I suggest adding a parameter to the setAttribute function of the Metable trait to specify whether the added property should be treated as meta or not.

public function setAttribute($key, $value, $disableFluent = false) {
    // Don't set meta data if fluent access is disabled.
    if ((property_exists($this, 'disableFluentMeta') && $this->disableFluentMeta) || $disableFluent) {
        return parent::setAttribute($key, $value);
    }
    // ... rest of the code
}

With this change, we can explicitly define whether a property should be meta or not when setting it

$user = new User();
$user->setAttribute('test', 'test', false);

This would provide better control over how attributes are handled.

Would it be possible to implement this improvement?

Thanks!

[kodeine]

Hello,

What do you mean by dynamic properties vs meta properties, how do you see them different?

[Francisco-Merchan]

Hi, thanks for getting back to me.
I our case, we get the model from the database and before returning it to the client, we process and generate values on the fly and we add them to the model as if they where actual properties of the model.
This stopped working when we upgraded to L11 and we are trying to find an elegant solution.
We think it will be also a good addition for Metable.
Thanks!

[kodeine]

You should add new properties at transformer level or a level which is not db aware.

Purpose of Meta is like a dynamic field.

[siamak2]

before returning it to the client, we process and generate values on the fly and we add them to the model as if they where actual properties of the model.

You should use accessors for this.
Laravel meta is aware of accessors and mutators and won't treat them as meta.
Then use appends property to include them in the JSON output.

I suggest adding a parameter to the setAttribute function of the Metable trait to specify whether the added property should be treated as meta or not.

This is a good idea, but setAttribute is a laravel method and it's best not to touch it's signature. Instead I could add another method that calls the original setAttribute method.
What should I name it? setAttributeRaw? setAttributeOriginal? originalSetAttribute? laravelSetAttribute? (I know, I'm overthinking it) @kodeine what do you think?

[kodeine]

@siamak2 setAttributeRaw sounds good to me

[dhcmega]

Hi, we have solved this problem by adding this method to the models that have meta:

public function setDynamicAttribute($key, $value)
{
    parent::setAttribute($key, $value);
}

We use it for props that are not actual part of the model and doesn't need to be persisted as a meta.

Thanks!