Lazy loading relationships on wide tables/models

[drew-acheson]

I have a data object that has quite a few properties in it's constructor. Is there a way to use lazy loading (on the last property listed here) without having to restate all these properties in the fromModel() function? An example of my model is below.

class MemberData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public int $PersonID,
        public ?string $FirstName,
        public string $LastName,
        public ?string $DisplayName,
        public ?string $Class,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d')]
        public ?DateTime $ClassChangeDate,
        #[MapName('status')]
        public ?string $STATUS,
        #[Rule(['email'])]
        public ?string $Email,
        public ?string $PhoneHome,
        public ?string $PhoneWork,
        public ?string $Address,
        public ?string $Address2,
        public ?string $City,
        public ?string $StateProv,
        public ?string $AdministrativeArea,
        public ?string $AdministrativeAreaISO,
        public ?string $Country,
        public ?string $PostalCode,
        public ?string $Nationality,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d')]
        public ?DateTime $ChangeOfAddressDate,
        public ?string $Gender,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d')]
        public ?DateTime $BirthDate,
        public ?string $Rating,
        public $RatingEffectiveDate,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d')]
        public ?DateTime $RatingToDate,
        public ?int $RatingRoundsUsed,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d')]
        public ?DateTime $ReceiveDate,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d')]
        public ?DateTime $JoinDate,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d')]
        public ?DateTime $ExpDate,
        public ?string $MemberType,
        public ?string $AvatarURL,
        public int $AvatarUpdatedAt,
        public ?string $Visibility,
        #[MapName('hof')]
        #[WithCast(YesNoBooleanCast::class)]
        public ?bool $HOF,
        #[WithCast(YesNoBooleanCast::class)]
        public ?bool $Deceased,
        public ?string $Notes,
        public ?string $EntryUser,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d H:i:s')]
        public ?DateTime $EntryDate,
        public ?string $UpdateUser,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d H:i:s')]
        public ?DateTime $UpdateDate,
        #[WithCast(YesNoBooleanCast::class)]
        public ?bool $Sync,
        #[WithCast(DateTimeInterfaceCast::class, format: 'Y-m-d H:i:s')]
        public ?DateTime $SyncDate,
        #[DataCollectionOf(LiveResultData::class)]
        public Lazy|DataCollection $LiveResults
    ){}
}

[jbeales]

I'm new to laravel-data too, but here's what I'm doing in my fromModel method:

    public static function fromModel(ProviderAccount $account) {
        $normalizer = new ModelNormalizer();
        $normalized = $normalizer->normalize($account);

        $normalized['managed_by'] = Lazy::create(fn() => UserData::collection($account->managedBy));
        $normalized['listings'] = Lazy::create(fn() => ListingData::collection($account->listings));
        $normalized['ratings'] = Lazy::create(fn() => RatingData::collection($account->ratings));

        return new self(...$normalized);
    }

This way I let spatie/laravel-data's model normalizer do most of the work, then set the things I want to be lazy as lazy.

[jbeales]

I'm not sure, but it helped me. I was having trouble with date casts too, then it started working and I don't 100% know why. I had added a $casts array to my model, but only put a different, boolean, property in it. I also made sure that the WithCast and DateTimeInterfaceCast classes were in the use statement at the top of my Data class.

Edit: I looked at the code: I changed the date from having a DateTime class to a Carbon class.

[jbeales]

I wonder if by using the normalizer in fromModel we're skipping over parts of the data pipeline.

[drew-acheson]

Yes, I believe you are correct. The documentation for pipes says:

"When using a magic creation methods, the pipeline is not being used (since you manually overwrite how a data object is constructed). Only when you pass in a request object a minimal version of the pipeline is used to authorize and validate the request."

And while I added the appropriate date fields to the $casts array of the model, I have a custom Cast in my Data object class which is not being implemented and returning me bad data. Need to figure out how to call the CastPropertiesDataPipe pipe so the Data Object class does the casting and not the Model class.

[drew-acheson]

I was able to implement the CastPropertiesDataPipe in the fromModel function. Here is my final function:

    public static function fromModel(Member $member): self
    {
        $pipeline = DataPipeline::create()
            ->into(static::class)
            ->through(CastPropertiesDataPipe::class);

        $pipeline->normalizer(new ModelNormalizer());
        $normalized = $pipeline->using($member)->execute();
        $normalized['live_results'] = Lazy::whenLoaded('liveResults', $member, fn() => LiveResultData::collection($member->liveResults));

        return new self(...$normalized);
    }

Thanks for all the help @jbeales

[jbeales]

Coming back in 2024 to say that the solution of using the normalizer in the fromModel() method doesn't work in v4, because the ModelNormalizer now returns a NormalizedModel object and not an array. Removing the fromModel and putting its logic into an additional pipe for the pipeline is how I'm fixing the problem now, (although I have added validation and am having trouble with that, but I think that's a separate problem).