Route Model Binding (or not)

[wrurik]

Hello,

We use this package for building an API. We use Laravel Resources for the response of the API and all relations are conditionally appended to the Resources like this:

'relation' => RelationResource::make($this->whenLoaded('relation')),

I was trying to setup the Spatie query builder to be used when resolving RouteModelBinding so I can request certain relations on a model when fetching a single model or even when updating a model.

I kinda got it working by placing the following in my RouteServiceProvider:

Route::bind('order', function ($value) {
  return (new OrderQuery)->where('id', '=', $value)->firstOrFail();
});

This works when order is the only thing being resolved from the url:
/api/orders/{order}

But when I have a nested resource this fails because the filters and relations in the request (intended for order-lines) are applied when resolving the order as well:
/api/orders/{order}/order-lines

This made me wonder how other people use this package. Do you use the Spatie Query Builder at all for routes other than the index? And if not, how do you determine the relations that should be loaded in these other methods?

[AlexVanderbist]

Hi! I've never used the package as a route model binding but it's definitely an interesting use case. I think most people indeed just create the QueryBuilder instance in the index method of their controllers.

However, I have used an extended QueryBuilder class (like your OrderQuery) to re-use on both the index and show routes of an API controller. That way the front-end has access to the same includes on a single resource.

Hopefully this answers your question, good luck!