Model Required Fields

Get the required model fields, excluding primary keys, nullable fields, and fields with defaults. In In other words, get the minimal required fields necessary to create the model without causing a database error.

Installation

You can install the package via Composer:

composer require watheqalshowaiter/model-required-fields --dev

We prefer --dev because you usually use it in development, not in production. If you have a use case that requires using the package in production, then remove the --dev flag.

Usage

We Assume that the User model has this schema as the default.

Schema::create('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id(); // primary key
    $table->string('name'); // required
    $table->string('email')->unique(); // required
    $table->timestamp('email_verified_at')->nullable(); // nullable
    $table->string('password'); // required
    $table->string('random_number'); // default (in model attributes)
    $table->rememberToken(); // nullable
    $table->timestamps(); // nullable
});

Important

We have two ways:

• Either use the ModelFields facade. (encouraged).
• Or use the RequiredFields trait. (less encouraged and will be removed in the next major version).

We will explain the trait way in one example, and the other will be only using the facade way and all the methods on both ways are the same.

// Facade way
use WatheqAlshowaiter\ModelRequiredFields\ModelFields;
use App\Models\User;

ModelFields::model(User::class)->getRequiredFields(); // returns ['name', 'email', 'password']

// Trait way
use WatheqAlshowaiter\ModelRequiredFields\RequiredFields;

class User extends Model
{
   use RequiredFields;

   protected $attributes = [
       'random_number' => '1234',
   ];
}

• Now use the trait as follows

User::getRequiredFields(); // returns ['name', 'email', 'password']

That's it!

Another Complex Table

Let's say the Post model has these fields

Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->uuid('id')->primary(); // primary key
    $table->foreignId('user_id')->constrained(); // required
    $table->foreignId('category_id')->nullable(); // nullable
    $table->uuid(); // required (but will be changed later) 👇
    $table->ulid('ulid')->nullable(); // nullable (but will be changed later) 👇
    $table->boolean('active')->default(false); // default
    $table->string('title'); // required
    $table->json('description')->nullable(); // nullable (but will be changed later) 👇
    $table->string('slug')->nullable()->unique(); // nullable
    $table->timestamps(); // nullable
    $table->softDeletes(); // nullable
});

// later migration..
Schema::table('posts', function(Blueprint $table){
    $table->json('description')->nullable(false)->change(); // required
    $table->ulid('ulid')->nullable(false)->change(); // required
    $table->uuid()->nullable()->change(); // nullable
});

ModelFields::model(Post::class)->getRequiredFields(); // returns ['user_id', 'ulid', 'title', 'description']

And more

We have the flexibility to get required fields with nullables, defaults, primary keys, and a mix of them or return all fields. You can use these methods with these results:

// The default parameters only required fields
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
    ->getRequiredFields(
        $withNullables = false,
        $withDefaults = false,
        $withPrimaryKey = false
    );

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)->getRequiredFields();
// returns ['user_id', 'ulid', 'title', 'description']

// get required fields with nullables
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFields(
                $withNullables = true,
                $withDefaults = false,
                $withPrimaryKey = false        
            );

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFields(
                $withNullables = true    
            );

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFields(true);

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFieldsWithNullables();
// returns
// [
//     'user_id', 'category_id', 'uuid', 'ulid', 'title', 'description', 'slug',
//     'created_at', 'updated_at', 'deleted_at'
// ]

// get required fields with defaults
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFields(
                $withNullables = false,
                $withDefaults = true,
                $withPrimaryKey = false
        );

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFieldsWithDefaults();
// returns ['user_id', 'ulid', 'active', 'title', 'description']

// get required fields with primary key
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFields(
            $withNullables = false,
            $withDefaults = false,
            $withPrimaryKey = true
        );

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFieldsWithPrimaryKey();
// returns ['id', 'user_id', 'ulid', 'title', 'description']

// get required fields with nullables and defaults
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFields(
                $withNullables = true,
                $withDefaults = true,
                $withPrimaryKey = false
            );

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFieldsWithNullablesAndDefaults();
// returns
// [
//     'user_id', 'category_id', 'uuid', 'ulid', 'active', 'title', 'description', 'slug',
//     'created_at', 'updated_at', 'deleted_at'
// ]

// get required fields with nullables and primary key
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFields(
                $withNullables = true,
                $withDefaults = false,
                $withPrimaryKey = true
            );

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFieldsWithNullablesAndPrimaryKey();
// returns
// [
//     'id', 'user_id', 'category_id', 'uuid', 'ulid', 'title', 'description', 'slug',
//     'created_at', 'updated_at', 'deleted_at'
// ]

// get required fields with defaults and primary key
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFields(
            $withNullables = false,
            $withDefaults = true,
            $withPrimaryKey = true
        );

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
          ->getRequiredFieldsWithDefaultsAndPrimaryKey();
// returns ['id', 'user_id', 'ulid', 'active', 'title', 'description']

// get required fields with nullables, defaults and primary key
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getRequiredFields(
                $withNullables = true,
                $withDefaults = true,
                $withPrimaryKey = true
            );

// or
ModelFields::model(Post::class)
            ->getAllFields();
// returns
// [
//     'id', 'user_id', 'category_id', 'uuid', 'ulid', 'active', 'title', 'description',
//     'slug', 'created_at', 'updated_at', 'deleted_at'
// ]

Why?

The problem

I wanted to add tests to a legacy project that didn't have any. I wanted to add tests but couldn't find a factory, so I tried building them. However, it was hard to figure out the required fields for testing the basic functionality since some tables have too many fields.

The Solution

To solve this, I created a simple trait (and a facade class) that retrieves the required fields easily. Later, I added support for older Laravel versions, as that was where most of the use cases occurred. Eventually, I extracted it into this package.

So Briefly, This package is useful if:

• you want to build factories or tests for projects you didn't start from scratch.
• you are working with a legacy project and don't want to be faced with SQL errors when creating tables.
• you have so many fields in your table and want to get the required fields fast.
• or any use case you find it useful.

Features

✅ Supports Laravel versions: 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, and 6.

✅ Supports PHP versions: 8.4, 8.3, 8.2, 8.1, 8.0, and 7.4.

✅ Supports SQL databases: SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server.

✅ Fully automated tested with PHPUnit.

✅ Full GitHub Action CI pipeline to format code and test against all Laravel and PHP versions.

✅ Can return fields based on the dynamically added class strings (in the facade method).

Testing

composer test

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

If you have any ideas or suggestions to improve it or fix bugs, your contribution is welcome.

I encourage you to look at Issues which are the most important features need to be added.

If you have something different, submit an issue first to discuss or report a bug, then do a pull request.

Security Vulnerabilities

If you find any security vulnerabilities don't hesitate to contact me at watheqalshowaiter[at]gmail[dot]com to fix them.

Credits

• Watheq Alshowaiter

• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.