# Laravel Virtual Fields

Allow eloquent models to store and retreive data against anything without needing a specific database column.

Virtual Fields hook into eloquent attribute fetching to allow it to use a specific field to map data but still support all the core features of eloquent and a hybrid of virtual and physical fields in a database table.


# Installation

```bash
composer require jsefton/laravel-virtual-fields
```

# Usage & Requirements

Virtual Fields is a trait that you can use in any eloquent model. e.g.

```php
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use JSefton\VirtualFields\VirtualFields;

class Post extends Model 
{
    use VirtualFields;
}
```

For virtual fields to work the database table for the desired model must have a field called `data`. You should add this through a migration for each model / table you wish to use Virtual Fields.

```bash
php artisan make:migration add_virtual_field_data_table_to_{table} --table={table}
```

Once you have created a migration you will want something similar to the below to add the new field and handle removing in the down method.
```php
/**
 * Run the migrations.
 *
 * @return void
 */
public function up()
{
    Schema::table('{table}', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->longText('data')->nullable();
    });
}

/**
 * Reverse the migrations.
 *
 * @return void
 */
public function down()
{
    Schema::table('{table}', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->dropColumn(['resource_link']);
    });
}
```

The reason for `data` field to be a `longText` is to support long term usage of Virtual Fields. If you keep adding new data to store via Virtual Fields it will end up with a large JSON object within this column. If you know it is only going to be used for a small amount of data then please make your migration use a suitable data type.