https://github.com/proai/eloquent-inheritance
:dna: Single table inheritance for Laravel inspired by the Rails implementation
https://github.com/proai/eloquent-inheritance
Last synced: 6 days ago
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:dna: Single table inheritance for Laravel inspired by the Rails implementation
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/proai/eloquent-inheritance
- Owner: ProAI
- License: mit
- Created: 2023-06-04T10:37:15.000Z (almost 3 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-05-29T15:39:40.000Z (10 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-12-08T10:45:27.216Z (3 months ago)
- Language: PHP
- Homepage:
- Size: 11.7 KB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# Eloquent Inheritance
[](https://packagist.org/packages/proai/eloquent-inheritance) [](https://packagist.org/packages/proai/eloquent-inheritance) [](https://packagist.org/packages/proai/eloquent-inheritance) [](https://packagist.org/packages/proai/eloquent-inheritance)
Single table inheritance is a way to emulate object-oriented inheritance in a relational database. While other frameworks like Ruby on Rails have a built-in implementation for this pattern, Laravel has not. This package aims to provide an as easy as possible implementation for Laravel.
## Installation
You can install the package via composer:
```bash
composer require proai/eloquent-inheritance
```
Please note that you need at least **PHP 8.0** and **Laravel 9** for this package.
## Usage
First you need to add the `Inheritance` trait to your root model:
```php
use ProAI\Inheritance\Inheritance;
class Pet extends Model
{
use Inheritance;
//
}
```
Then you can extend the root model by other models that use the same table:
```php
class Cat extends Pet
{
//
}
class Dog extends Pet
{
//
}
```
> Note that you need a table `pets` with a column called `type` in order to make the example above work.
Whenever a `Cat` or `Dog` model is instantiated, the attribute `type` will be set to the classname of the class (e.g. `App\Models\Cat`).
Other than that there is no magic and a `Cat` or a `Dog` model will behave just like a normal Eloquent model. You can define cat or dog specific attributes and relationships on these models. An attribute only set for dogs for example should be a nullable column on the table, so that it is set for dogs but `null` for other pets.
### Root model behaviour
You can query the root model like any other model. However, the returned models will be transformed based by the type name. For example if there is one cat and one dog in the database, `Pet::all();` will return one `Dog` and one `Cat` model.
It is not possible to use `new Pet($attributes);` when you specify the type in `$attributes`. Please use the static method `Pet::new($attributes)` instead. This method returns a new model based on the given type. For example if the type in `$attributes` is `App\Models\Cat`, it will return an instance of `App\Models\Cat`. If no type is specified, an instance of `App\Models\Pet` will be returned.
### Custom type names
If you want to use different names for the type column than the classname, you can use the static `$inheritanceMap` property:
```php
class Pet extends Model
{
use Inheritance;
protected static $inheritanceMap = [
'cat' => Cat::class,
'dog' => Dog::class,
];
}
```
### Custom type column
By default the name of the type column is `type`. However, you can set a custom type column name:
```php
use ProAI\Inheritance\Inheritance;
class Pet extends Model
{
use Inheritance;
protected static $inheritanceColumn = 'pet_type';
}
```
## Support
Bugs and feature requests are tracked on [GitHub](https://github.com/proai/eloquent-inheritance/issues).
## License
This package is released under the [MIT License](LICENSE).