Tracking model attribute changes in Laravel
Sometimes, it’s useful to know if somethig has been changed in the model since it’s been loaded. For instance, you would want to check if the is_published attribute of the Post model is set or not before publishing the post further.
Laravel has some handy methods which can be used for such purposes. These methods tracks the model attributes for any changes on them for a particular request cycle. Following are those methods.
isDirty- The method determines if any attributes have been changed since the model was loaded and before it’s been saved.isClean- The method determines if any attributes have not been changed since the model was loaded and before it’s been saved. Basically the opposite of theisDirtymethod.wasChanged- The method determines if any attributes were changed when the model was last saved within the current request cycle.
The isDirty method
As specified previously, it checks for any attributes that have been changed since the model was loaded. Here’s how you can use it.
$post = Post::create([
'title' => 'My title',
'description' => 'Awesome description',
'is_published' => false
]);
$post->isDirty();
// return `false` as any model attribute hasn't been changed yet
$post->is_published = true;
$post->isDirty();
// return `true` as `is_published` is changed.
$post->isDirty('title');
// returns `false` as `title` attirbute hasn't been changed yet
$post->isDirty('is_published');
// returns `true` as `is_published` is changed.
$post->save();
The isClean method
The isClean method is the opposite of isDirty methos which checks if attributes of the model is “clean” or not. So, using isClean in the previous example will return the opposite of what isDirty would return.
$post = Post::create([
'title' => 'My title',
'description' => 'Awesome description',
'is_published' => false
]);
$post->isClean();
// return `true` as any model attribute hasn't been changed yet
$post->is_published = true;
$post->isClean();
// return `false` as `is_published` is changed.
$post->isClean('title');
// returns `true` as `title` attirbute hasn't been changed yet
$post->isClean('is_published');
// returns `false` as `is_published` is changed.
$post->save();
One thing to note here is, once the model is saved, both
isDirtyandisCleanwill mark the model instance “not dirty” and “clean” respectively. So,isDirtywill returnfalseandisCleanwill returntrue.
The wasChanged method
So, when you want to know if the an attribute was changed “before saving” the model, you can use wasChanged method. Here’s how it works.
$post = Post::create([
'title' => 'My title',
'description' => 'Awesome description',
'is_published' => false
]);
$post->is_published = true;
$post->save();
$post->wasChanged();
// return `true` as `is_published` is changed.
$post->wasChanged('title');
// returns `false` as `title` attirbute hasn't been changed yet
$post->wasChanged('is_published');
// returns `true` as `is_published` is changed.
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