Add support for writing default DB values to models $attributes property

[mfn]

Note: this is similar in spirit to #693 but it's something else

Example migration:

        Schema::connection('main')->create('articles', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->bigIncrements('id');
            $table->boolean('is_visible')->default(true);

Model (simplified phpdoc as would be generated by ide-helper)

/**
 * @property int $id
 * @property bool $is_visible
 */
class Article {
}

When you create a new model and access the is_visible attribute, it's null:

$model = new Article();
var_dump($model->is_visible);

outputs

NULL

By manually adding it to the $attributes property, we get default values out of the box:

/**
 * @property int $id
 * @property bool $is_visible
 */
class Article {
  protected $attributes = [
    'is_visible' => true,
  ];
}

Outcome:

$model = new Article();
var_dump($model->is_visible);

outputs

bool(true)

What are the thoughts about adding optional support for ide-helper to generate the $attributes automatically as a result from the introspection?

• introduce a new flag --default-attributes
• adds protected $attributes = []; if missing
• adds (overwrites?) all values within with the ones from the database => very much like the phpdoc
• add the `$att

[edvordo]

This issue is on laravel side and it is expected behavior.

When you create a new model, it does not query the created record from database, simply because it doesn't know whether it should or not and leaves this decision to the individual developers (via $article->refresh()).

[mfn]

This issue is on laravel side and it is expected behavior.

I know 🤔 I never pretended otherwise.

I'm talking about providing a way to auto-generate them.

(via $article->refresh()).

Yes, but this doesn't cover the case when you create a new model, have not yet persisted it and want/need to pass it around: the defaults won't match what your database has.

That's why Laravel provides the $attributes property for.

That's why I suggested an optional way to auto-generate them to free the developer of having to manually maintain them 😄

[mfn]

I'm closing this because my use case changed/expanded.

I was using protected $attributes in the model and this issue was about getting the default values automatically from the migration/database into them.

What changed is that in many cases I've refactored the actual $attributes into a constant on the model because I need this for tests in places where I need to mass-check model attributes so I can access the default values outside of a "live" model, as in:

class SomeModel extends …
  public const DEFAULT_ATTRIBUTES = [
    'foo' => true,
  ];
  protected $attributes = self::DEFAULT_ATTRIBUTES;
}

class CompletelyDifferentCode {
  public function foo() {
    // access it
    … = SomeModel::DEFAULT_ATTRIBUTES
  }
}

Supporting would be way of the scope for the feature and since I could not benefit from it anymore, even when implemented, I'm closing this.