Adds a model:watch command to poll the database for changes to Eloquent models

Adds a artisan model:watch command to watch for changes to Eloquent models by polling the database.

Use Case & Demo

I created this package as part of reverse engineering a closed course system, using a Laravel project with models setup to read a from the target database, it allowed me to figure out what the system was doing when (for example) allocating payments to invoices.

The ModelWatchCollection used above is as simple as this:

<?php

namespace App\Collections\ModelWatch;

use App\Models\Site;
use App\Models\User;
use Mha\LaravelModelWatch\Collections\BaseWatchCollection;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;

class ExampleWatchCollection extends BaseWatchCollection
{
    public function getModels(): Collection
    {
        $user = User::find(9, ['id', 'name', 'email']);
        $site = Site::find(44, ['id', 'name', 'slug', 'url']);

        return collect([$user, $site]);
    }
}

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require mill-hill-automation/laravel-model-watch

You can publish the config file with:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="laravel-model-watch-config"

This is the contents of the published config file:

return [
    'collections' => [
        'default' => \Mha\LaravelModelWatch\Collections\ExampleWatchUsers::class,
    ],
];

Usage

Watch a single model

Call artisan model:watch with a model class and ID to display the current values as a table in your console. Any time a field change is detected a new column will be added.

artisan model:watch App/Models/Contact 2 --fields=name --fields=email

Watch dynamic or multiple models

With an extra couple of steps you can watch multiple models, or dynamically select which models to watch.

You can even query for models which do not yet exist, and they will appear on screen when they do.

To do this create a collection with extends Mha\LaravelModelWatch\Collections\BaseWatchCollection and implement the getModels() method, which returns a collection of models to watch.

<?php

namespace App\Collections\ModelWatch;

use App\Models\User;
use Mha\LaravelModelWatch\Collections\BaseWatchCollection;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;

class FirstUsersComments extends BaseWatchCollection
{
    /**
     * Return the user with an ID of 1 and any of their posts.
    **/
    public function getModels(): Collection
    {
        $models = new Collection;
        $user = User::find(1);

        $models[] = $user;
        $models->push(
            ...$user->comments()
        )
        return $models;
    }
}

Testing

composer test

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Issues and Pull Requests are welcome, especially with tests :)

Todo/Wishlist/Ideas:

• Have a prompt on the command to enter events which are added to the output, to assist with tracing.

Credits

• Sami Walbury
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.