Two Overlooked Laravel Features: `fresh()` and Attribute Visibility

#php #laravel #sql #community

🔁 Reloading Models with `fresh()`

Laravel's fresh method allows you to reload a model or an entire collection from the database, ensuring you are working with the most up-to-date data.

You can also pass relationship names to fresh, and they will be reloaded alongside the model.

use App\Models\User;

$users = User::has('comments', 1)->with('comments')->get();

// Modify the first comment locally (not persisted)
$users->first()->comments->first()->body = 'Updated body';

// Reload users and their comments from the database
$users = $users->fresh('comments');

👀 Controlling Serialization with `visible` and `hidden`

Laravel provides the visible and hidden properties to control which attributes appear when a model is converted to an array or JSON.

What's less commonly known is that these properties also accept relationship names, allowing you to explicitly show or hide relationships during serialization.

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    /**
     * The attributes that should be visible in arrays.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $visible = [
        'name',
        'email',
        'created_at',
        'comments', // one-to-many relationship
    ];
}