Laravel form model binding

Question

I've been reading about this feature: http://laravel.com/docs/html#form-model-binding

And it looks really neat, but there are couple of things that I'm not certain about.

Do I need to put any code in the controller action to process this form? What does that look like?

The model (User) I want to bind in my form has a separate table for addresses. So I want to be able to fill out the User model's fields, but also the fields for the related Address model. Can I do that with form-model-binding, or do I have to handle the form manually?

Or, failing that, can I use form model binding for the user fields, but manually handle the address fields?

score 44 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 08 '17 at 14:41

You don't need any different code in your controller to process this form. All your (named) form variables will be in Input::all().

The model ($user) you pass in

Form::model($user, array('route' => array('user.update', $user->id)))

Is just any record you need to, if you have more than one table involved, you'll have to do something like

$user = User::where('id',$userID)
           ->leftJoin('users_addresses', 'users_addresses.user_id', '=', 'users.id')
           ->first();

And pass this composed model to your Form::model().

How you name your inputs is entirely up to you, because you'll have to write the logic to process your form. But, in my opinion users_address[street] for the address inputs is good, because you'll end up with an array of addresses columns that you can pass right away to your UserAddress model.

<html>
    <head>
        <title></title>
    </head>
    <body>
        {{ Form::model($user, array('route' => array('user.update', $user->id))) }}
            {{ Form::label('first_name', 'First Name:', array('class' => 'address')) }}
            {{ Form::text('first_name') }}

            {{ Form::label('last_name', 'Last Name:', array('class' => 'address')) }}
            {{ Form::text('last_name') }}

            {{ Form::label('email', 'E-Mail Address', array('class' => 'address')) }}
            {{ Form::text('email') }}

            {{ Form::label('address[street1]', 'Address (Street 1)', array('class' => 'address')) }}
            {{ Form::text('address[street1]') }}

            {{ Form::label('address[street2]', 'Address (Street 2)', array('class' => 'address')) }}
            {{ Form::text('address[street2]') }}

            {{ Form::label('ddress[city]', 'City', array('class' => 'address')) }}
            {{ Form::text('address[city]') }}

            {{ Form::label('address[state]', 'State', array('class' => 'address')) }}
            {{ Form::text('address[state]') }}

            {{ Form::label('address[zip]', 'Zip Code', array('class' => 'address')) }}
            {{ Form::text('address[zip]') }}

            {{ Form::submit('Send this form!') }}
        {{ Form::close() }}
    </body>
</html>

And if you do dd( Input::all() ) in your controller, you'll get something like this:

This is the Input::all() result This result is provided by Kint's dd(): https://github.com/raveren/kint. Really helpful.

If your form just have fields from a single Model, your update method can be very simple and look something like:

public function update($id)
{
    $user = User::find($id);

    if (!$user->update(Input::all())) {
        return Redirect::back()
                ->with('message', 'Something wrong happened while saving your model')
                ->withInput();
    }

    return Redirect::route('user.saved')
                ->with('message', 'User updated.');
}

On forms a little bit more complex, coders will have to add more logic to their controllers, in you case with a little bit more of research I think you can make this happen:

public function update($id)
{
    $user = User::find($id);

    $inputs = Input::all();

    if (!$user->update($inputs)) {
            $address = new UserAddress($inputs['address']);

        $user->address()->save($address);

        ...
    }

    ...
}

That's pretty slick. So how do I format the property names in the fields' name attributes? Like `users_address.street` or maybe `users_address[street]` or some other way? — eimajenthat, Jun 01 '13 at 16:07
Also, what if I retrieved the user by Auth:user()? Could I do Auth:user()->leftJoin('users_addresses', 'users.id', '=', 'users_addresses.user_id')? — eimajenthat, Jun 01 '13 at 17:39
Does dd() generate that nice collapsible array view? Never seen that before. Looks like [krumo](http://krumo.sourceforge.net/), but possibly nicer. At any rate, I thought the model form binding did something magical around saving the fields to the model. The docs say something about making your form input names match the model's field names. Maybe that is just for populating the fields? But if that's the case, is there a standard to follow to get the address fields to populate? — eimajenthat, Jun 01 '13 at 17:50
dd() is from Kint package, posted a link above. And form model is somehow magical, as far as I know, for simple forms. Just added an example. You just need to `$user->update(Input::all())` to save your form. — Antonio Carlos Ribeiro, Jun 01 '13 at 18:10
Auth:user() is already a model, I'm not sure if you can do a new query over it, but in Laravel with all those injections, everything is possible. But you can just add a new property to your User model and call it like $user->user_with_address, wich will do whatever you need to get your user with your address. — Antonio Carlos Ribeiro, Jun 01 '13 at 18:27
Why do i get Undefined property: Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder::$id — TheBAST, Feb 03 '17 at 08:03

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 15 '18 at 14:04

2

In Laravel 5.1 for relation model binding you just need to eager load relation table(s):

$user = User::with(['address'])->find($id);

And in view set fields names as array:

{!! Form::model($user, ['route' => ['user.update', $user->id]]) !!}
    {!! Form::text('address[street]') !!}
    {!! Form::text('address[number]') !!}
{!! Form::close() !!}

edited Sep 15 '18 at 14:04

Lepidopteron

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answered Nov 19 '15 at 15:10

Dukadin

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Laravel form model binding

2 Answers2

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