Laravel and variable naming conventions (snake case + camel case)

Question

We are following the Laravel standard of naming model attributes as snake_case_variables. Although Laravel is just the API layer in our system that talks to a Javascript frontend and many other applications.

All the consumers of our API have a strong preference for camel cased variables (e.g. javascript / React).

We have found it difficult to change the core model attributes e.g. created_at, updated_at, confirmation_password, model relations etc into snake case.

we have toyed wth and implemented transform layers to change the "casing" coming in and going out, although this just add to maintenance and another thing for developers to remember...

How can we easily convert all model attributes, relations and general Laravel bindings into camel case?

If you leave these attributes, as snake_case, will these consumers throw errors or just won't be able to read those attributes? In second case, there probably is a solution, in the first, there is no easy work around. — naneri, Apr 08 '16 at 08:19

aimme · Answer 1 · 2016-04-08T07:35:35.653

I didn't recommend as it changes the core of the laravel and so its modifying vendor files and it won't be easy to update without loosing the changes, but I think the easiest way is to do this is to replace the vendor\laravel\framework\src\illuminate\Support\Str.php with a modified version. laravel performs all string modifications to studly, camel case, snake case etc from methods inside this file. go through the functions change the way the functions perform, but i don't think it will make sense as the method names wouldn't be matching to what they are performing.

Best but the hard way is to go into each files that is being using the methods in Str class and modifying acording to your needs, than it will make sense and yet a lot of work as you need to change the methods that are being used.

change the required values from these files.

see vendor\laravel\framework\src\Database\Eloquent\Model.php also you could see these values are set here for checking from models.

public static $manyMethods = ['belongsToMany', 'morphToMany', 'morphedByMany'];
const CREATED_AT = 'created_at';
const UPDATED_AT = 'updated_at';

see vendor\laravel\framework\src\Database\Schema\Blueprint.php also you could see these values are set here for checking from creating migrations and dropping migrations. for example the one that creates timestamps.

public function timestamps()
{
    $this->timestamp('created_at')->nullable();

    $this->timestamp('updated_at')->nullable();
}

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 08 '16 at 08:07

2

You should definitely take a look at Mappable. We had the same problem, and this solved it. You can map snake_case to CamelCase names and even use them in QueryBuilder.

answered Apr 08 '16 at 08:07

Christoph Float

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Laravel and variable naming conventions (snake case + camel case)

2 Answers2