How to define and use JSON data type in Eloquent?

Question

How can I define JSON data type that is provided in pgsql 9.4 in Laravel 5?

I need to define data type, storing and fetching data and so far could not find way to deal it in Laravel 5.1

http://laravel.io/forum/01-19-2015-eloquent-postgres-and-the-json-datatype?page=1 — Rwd, Sep 04 '15 at 08:36

score 101 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 22 '18 at 14:13

101

In your migrations you can do something like:

$table->json('field_name');

And in your model you add the field to the $casts property to instruct Eloquent to deserialize it from JSON into a PHP array:

class SomeModel extends Model
{
    protected $casts = [
        'field_name' => 'array'
    ];
}

Note: This is also relevant answer for Laravel 5.6

edited Mar 22 '18 at 14:13

Martin Joiner

answered Sep 04 '15 at 22:57

Helder Lucas

>$table->json('field_name'); Is it available in Laravel 5.1? – Volatil3 Sep 05 '15 at 07:10
Awesome. Overlooked that. And in order to use PostgreSQL's JSON related queries I use Raw queries? – Volatil3 Sep 05 '15 at 18:13
Dunno, but I don't advise storing data in json if you want to query those values. – Helder Lucas Sep 06 '15 at 11:20
1

Checked today, you can query JSON data in Select too. PgSQL supports it natively. – Volatil3 Sep 06 '15 at 17:45
we don't have data type field in mysql. Do we need JSON type field in mysql or laravel will handle automatically? – Abid Hussain Dec 09 '15 at 06:59
Laravel will handle it automatically. Most likely will set it a TEXT type field. – Helder Lucas Dec 09 '15 at 10:59

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 24 '17 at 07:58

11

According to Laravel documentation, 'json' is not one of the casting available types. https://laravel.com/docs/5.1/eloquent-mutators

You should use 'array' instead:

class SomeModel extends Model
    {
        protected $casts = [
            'field_name' => 'array'
        ];
    }

answered Dec 24 '17 at 07:58

Roger

7

You are correct that it should be array but sadly 'json' does actually work. It shouldn't because it encourages bad use of the casts property which exists to describe what you want to cast it _to_. Saying I want to cast a JSON field _to_ JSON is nonsense but lots of people are using it. This is symptomatic of a general misunderstanding around JSON anyway, the number of times I've seen PHP array variables called $jsonSomething. JSON is a string! Always will be, it's a form of _notation_ not an object or an array. – Martin Joiner Mar 22 '18 at 10:56
I use `$jsonSomething` to indicate that the string is expected to be a parseable JSON string. – Vladimir Hidalgo Feb 22 '21 at 02:23

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered May 23 '22 at 19:39

For Object to JSON casting

class YourModel extends Model
{
    protected $casts = [
        'table_column_name' => 'object'
    ];
}

For Array to JSON casting

 class YourModel extends Model
{
    protected $casts = [
        'table_column_name' => 'array'
    ];
}

3 Answers3