[5.4] Add "make" method to Eloquent Query Builder

[calebporzio]

While recording a recent podcast, @DanielCoulbourne and I discussed the benefit of having a make method for models as an alternative to the create method that does the persistence right away. @tillkruss expressed interest in the make method as well.

Simple Example:

Post::make(['title' => 'Hello World!'])->save();

Down the road we both would love to see something like the following:

Post::make(['title' => 'Hello World!'])
    ->withAuthor($author)
    ->withCompany($company)
    ->save();

We are in the process of implementing this functionality as an alternative to:

$author->posts()->save(new Post(['title' => 'Hello World', 'company_id' => $company->id]));

For now, getting the make the make method into Laravel would be a big help in situations where you find yourself doing this: new Post(....

Thanks!

[tillkruss]

We have make() method on model factories, this would make it a little more uniform and Post::newModelInstance() is rather long.

[mattstauffer]

👌🏻

[JosephSilber]

Why isn't this static?

[DanielCoulbourne]

I was just having this conversation with @calebporzio because I was accustomed to seeing create() as a static method on Model.php but it has now been moved to a dynamic method on the Eloquent Builder.

Looks like Model's __callStatic() method, which this is hitting, will call it dynamically.

I may be misunderstanding, but it seems safe to me.

[michaeldyrynda]

Unless I'm mistaken, __callStatic only works for inaccessible methods, i.e. private/protected and non-existent methods so to leverage that, you'd likely want to make the method protected if going down that path.

Otherwise, yes, as @JosephSilber suggested, it ought to be static. I'm not even certain how it's working as is 🔮

[DanielCoulbourne]

It works when called from the Model context because make() (and create(), which is also not static) are non-existent on Model.php, triggering __callStatic() which then does:
return (new static)->$method(...$parameters); calling the dynamic method on Eloquent Builder dynamically. This appears to be indended functionality based on this comment

At least that's how it seems, but I'm kind of a source-diving n00b so I could be reading this wrong.

[michaeldyrynda]

Huh, TIL. I didn't know that __callStatic worked up the tree like that 👍

[JosephSilber]

Oh. Looked too quickly. Thought this was defined on the model.

Of course, since it's on the builder it should not be static.

However, why is it on the builder in the first place?

[antonkomarev]

Hah... just thought to write the same implementation today! Thanks!

[meness]

make() method released with the latest version, is it possible to do like this right now?

Post::make(['title' => 'Hello World!'])
    ->withAuthor($author)
    ->withCompany($company)
    ->save();

[decadence]

@meness No. It was just future wish. This PR adds only one method.

[MasterRO94]

What difference is between make() and fill() methods?

[calebporzio]

@MasterRO94 - fill() can't be called statically. makes purpose is to initialize a model by using it as a static method: Post::make() - make sense?

[devcircus]

'Fill' uses an existing instance. 'Make' initializes a new instance and fills it with the provided data.

[orrd]

Rather than this:

Post::make(['title' => 'Hello World!'])->save();

We could already just do this right:

(new Post(['title' => 'Hello World!']))->save();

I guess the make() way is just an [arguably] cleaner alternative syntax?

[calebporzio]

@orrd - exactly

[calebporzio]

I just put it on the builder because that's where create lived. And it made sense to me to keep them both in the same place, especially since the only difference in implementation is the ->save() method.