Laravel Model Meta

Pre-release — Architecture by senior tech lead, implementation largely AI-assisted with human review. Not fully reviewed. Architecture may change before v1.0.0.

Generate Eloquent Models and Migrations from Resource Registry definitions. Also provides model introspection for the OpenAPI generator.

Installation

composer require dandoetech/laravel-model-meta

The service provider is auto-discovered. Publish the config:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=model-meta-config

Requires dandoetech/laravel-resource-registry.

Quick Start

Given a resource definition:

class ProductResource extends Resource implements HasEloquentModel
{
    public function model(): string { return \App\Models\Product::class; }

    protected function define(ResourceBuilder $b): void
    {
        $b->key('product')
          ->label('Product')
          ->timestamps()
          ->softDeletes()
          ->field('name', FieldType::String, nullable: false, rules: ['required', 'max:120'])
          ->field('price', FieldType::Float, nullable: false)
          ->field('category_id', FieldType::Integer, nullable: false)
          ->belongsTo('category', foreignKey: 'category_id')
          ->action('create')
          ->action('update');
    }
}

Generate the model and migration:

php artisan model-meta:generate-models
php artisan model-meta:generate-migrations

Generated Model

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes;

final class Product extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;
    use SoftDeletes;

    protected $table = 'products';

    /** @var list<string> */
    protected $fillable = [
        'name',
        'price',
        'category_id',
    ];

    /** @var array<string, string> */
    protected $casts = [
        'price' => 'float',
        'category_id' => 'integer',
    ];

    public function category()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(\App\Models\Category::class, 'category_id');
    }
}

Generated Migration

return new class extends Migration
{
    public function up(): void
    {
        Schema::create('products', function (Blueprint $table): void {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('name');
            $table->float('price');
            $table->unsignedBigInteger('category_id');
            $table->timestamps();
            $table->softDeletes();
            $table->foreign('category_id')->references('id')->on('categories');
        });
    }

    public function down(): void
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('products');
    }
};

Generated models are final. Devs edit them directly — add mutators, scopes, custom methods as needed.

Artisan Commands

model-meta:generate-models

php artisan model-meta:generate-models                     # all resources
php artisan model-meta:generate-models --only=product      # specific resources
php artisan model-meta:generate-models --force             # overwrite existing

Generates one model per resource. Includes $fillable, $casts, relation methods, HasFactory, and SoftDeletes (when enabled). Runs composer dump-autoload after generation.

model-meta:generate-migrations

php artisan model-meta:generate-migrations                 # all resources
php artisan model-meta:generate-migrations --only=product  # specific resources
php artisan model-meta:generate-migrations --force         # overwrite existing

Generates timestamped migration files. Maps field types, applies nullable/unique/index/default modifiers, and creates foreign key constraints for BelongsTo relations.

Type Mapping

Configuration

config/ddt_model_meta.php:

return [
    // Map resource keys to Eloquent models (for introspection)
    'resource_to_model' => [
        // 'product' => App\Models\Product::class,
    ],

    // Extra fields not discoverable by introspection
    'array_fields' => [
        // 'product' => [new FieldDefinition('virtual_flag', FieldType::Boolean, false)],
    ],

    // Provider priority (first non-empty result wins)
    'provider_order' => [
        ArrayModelMetaProvider::class,
        IntrospectingModelMetaProvider::class,
    ],
];

Model Introspection

The IntrospectingModelMetaProvider reads field metadata from existing Eloquent models (via schema or casts). This is used by the OpenAPI generator as a fallback when resources don't have explicit field definitions.

Testing

composer install
composer test        # PHPUnit (Orchestra Testbench)
composer qa          # cs:check + phpstan + test

License

MIT