README

Extending the laravel to work with PostgreSQL tables

Provides

• additional casting types for the some native PostgreSQL types
• additional many-to-many relations with using of specific PostgreSQL array-type fields

Anounced (in developing)

• extension of BluePrint to operate PostgreSQL array fields and GIN-indexes

Installation

Run:

composer require "limanweb/pg-ext"

Package contents

• Models\
  • Concerns\
    • PgTypeCastable - cast some PostgreSQL native types for model
    • HasArrayRelationships - additional relations for model
  • Model - The abstract model that used PgTypeCastable & HasArrayRelationships traits
• Relations\
  • ArrayRelations - base abstract class for array-field relations
  • HasManyInArray - HasManyInArray relation class
  • BelongsToManyArrays - BelongsToManyArrays relation class
• Support\
  • PgHelper - PostgreSQL native type convertion helper

Using extended casting

Use trait Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Concerns\PgTypeCastable in your model to cast some native PostgreSQL types

1. Add trait Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Concerns\PgTypeCastable into your model

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class YourModel extends Model 
{
	use Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Concerns\PgTypeCastable;
	
	// Your model implementation
}	

or inherite your model from Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Model to use extended casting by default.

use Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Model;

class YourModel extends Model 
{
	// Your model implementation
}

1. Describe your table array fields in $casts property with 'pg_array'

protected $casts = [
	'your_array_field' => 'pg_array',
];

Available cast types:

• pg_array - use for one dimension array fields ("text[]", "varchar[]", "int[]" and other)

Now you can operate with array-attributes of model like with PHP-array.

Using extended relations

Add trait Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Concerns\HasArrayRelationships into your model

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class YourModel extends Model 
{
	use Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Concerns\PgTypeCastable;
	use Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Concerns\HasArrayRelationships;
	
	// Your model implementation
}	

or inherite your model from Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Model to use extended casting and relationships by default.

What many-to-many relation trough array-field

For example, you have two tables: posts and tags. Every post can have many tags, and every tag can be associated with many posts. You can add a column 'tag_ids' of native PostgreSQL type 'INTEGER[]' (array of integer) into 'posts' table. Now, you can use this field to specify ID-s of tags associated with post.

Notes: Don't forget to create GIN-index on 'tag_ids' field.

Using the hasManyInArray and the belongsToManyArrays relationships allows you to access related models. See examples below.

hasManyInArray relation

use Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Model;

class Post extends Model {

	protected $casts = [
		'name' => 'string',
		'tag_ids' => 'pg_array', 	// this is array of integer PostgreSQL field
						// in SQL is "country_is INTEGER[],"
	];

	// Your model implementation

	/**
	 * @return Limanweb\PgExt\Relations\HasManyInArray
	 */
	public function tags() {
		return $this->hasManyInArray(Tag::class, 'tag_ids', 'id');
	}
}	

belongsToManyArrays relation

use Limanweb\PgExt\Models\Model;

class Tag extends Model {

	protected $casts = [
		'name' => 'string',
	];

	// Your model implementation

	/**
	 * @return Limanweb\PgExt\Relations\BelongsToManyArrays
	 */
	public function posts() {
		return $this->belongsToManyArrays(Post::class, 'tag_ids', 'id');
	}
}