Models

In Aureus ERP, Laravel models represent database tables and handle the business logic of an application. FilamentPHP extends Laravel's model system by integrating seamlessly with Filament resources, forms, tables, and actions.

Key Features of Laravel Models in FilamentPHP:

1. Eloquent ORM: Laravel models use Eloquent, an Object-Relational Mapper, to interact with database records as objects.
2. Soft Deletes: Some models use the SoftDeletes trait to enable soft deletion instead of permanent deletion.
3. Relationships: Models define relationships like BelongsTo, HasMany, and BelongsToMany to manage associations.
4. Accessors & Mutators: Models provide custom accessors (e.g., getImageUrlAttribute) to format data.
5. Factories: Laravel provides model factories to generate dummy data for testing.

Model Directory Structure in Aureus ERP

Aureus ERP follows a modular structure where each module (plugin) has its own models. The Post model resides in the Blog Module, and its directory structure is:

+-- plugins
|   +-- webkul
|   |   +-- blogs
|   |   |   +-- database
|   |   |   |   +-- factories
|   |   |   |   +-- migrations
|   |   |   |   +-- seeders
|   |   |   |   +-- settings
|   |   |   +-- resources
|   |   |   +-- src
|   |   |   |   +-- Models
|   |   |   |   |   +-- Post.php
|   |   |   |   |   +-- Category.php
|   |   |   |   |   +-- Tag.php

Each module contains models inside the Models directory, migrations inside blogs/database/migrations.

Post Model (plugins/webkul/blogs/src/Models/Post.php)

The Post model represents blog posts in the system and interacts with the blogs_posts database table.

Key Attributes

protected $fillable = [
    'title',
    'sub_title',
    'content',
    'slug',
    'image',
    'author_name',
    'is_published',
    'published_at',
    'visits',
    'meta_title',
    'meta_keywords',
    'meta_description',
    'category_id',
    'author_id',
    'creator_id',
    'last_editor_id',
];

These attributes can be mass assigned when creating or updating a post.

Casts

protected $casts = [
    'is_published' => 'boolean',
    'published_at' => 'datetime',
];

Casting ensures that is_published is treated as a boolean and published_at as a datetime object.

Relationships

public function tags(): BelongsToMany
{
    return $this->belongsToMany(Tag::class, 'blogs_post_tags', 'post_id', 'tag_id');
}

public function category(): BelongsTo
{
    return $this->belongsTo(Category::class);
}

public function author(): BelongsTo
{
    return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}

public function creator(): BelongsTo
{
    return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}

public function lastEditor(): BelongsTo
{
    return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}

These relationships define how posts interact with other entities like categories, users (authors, creators, editors), and tags.

Accessors

public function getImageUrlAttribute()
{
    if (! $this->image) {
        return null;
    }

    return Storage::url($this->image);
}

This accessor formats the image path to return a full URL.

public function getReadingTimeAttribute()
{
    $wordCount = str_word_count(strip_tags($this->content));
    $minutes = ceil($wordCount / 200);
    return $minutes . ' min read';
}

This accessor calculates the estimated reading time of the post.

Soft Deletes

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes;

This allows posts to be "soft deleted" without being permanently removed from the database.

Factory

protected static function newFactory(): PostFactory
{
    return PostFactory::new();
}

This method links the model to its factory for generating dummy data.