Eloquent firstOrCreate documentation or usage

Question

I'm attempting to seek a table to see if a column named "name" exists if so return the value and if not create that row with a null value i saw firstOrCreate but i cannot figure out how to use it for the life of me.

This is what i currently have, can someone lend a hand?

 class Settings extends Eloquent
        {
            protected $table = 'settings';
            protected $primaryKey = 'name';

            public static function get($settingName)
                {
                    return self::firstOrCreate(array('name' => $settingName));
//                    return self::select(array('value'))->where('name', '=', $settingName)->first()->value;
                }
        }

Solution

The create() method does mass assignment and this is a big security issue, so Laravel has a protection against it. Internally it has guarded = ['*'], so all your columns will be protected against mass assignment. You have some options:

Set the fillable columns of your model:

class User extends Eloquent {

    protected $fillable = array('first_name', 'last_name', 'email');

}

Or set only the ones you want to keep guarded:

class User extends Eloquent {

    protected $guarded = array('password');

}

You may, at your own risk also do:

class User extends Eloquent {

    protected $guarded = array();

}

And everything will be unguarded.

Take a look a the docs: http://laravel.com/docs/eloquent#mass-assignment

You also could use your Facade to call it:

 class Settings extends Eloquent
 {
        protected $table = 'settings';
        protected $primaryKey = 'name';

        public static function get($settingName)
        {
            return Settings::firstOrCreate(array('name' => $settingName));
        }
 }

Comments

[Clark T.]

the issue I'm having is when calling Settings::get('example'); and exam example doesn't exist in the database instead of creating it i get a MassAssignmentException of name

[Clark T.]

Also why would calling by my Facade be better than using self:: ?

[Antonio Carlos Ribeiro]

You are in fact mass assigning, so you need to add protected $guarded = []; to your model, if you need to assign to all your columns.

[Clark T.]

im not attempting to mass assign all i want to do is if that name is not in the table already create a row with names value set to $settingName is that not what my code reflects?

[Antonio Carlos Ribeiro]

create() method does mass assignment by itself. Have you tested setting the guard var?

[Clark T.]

I have not what column would i guard the table only contains the timestamp columns a name and value columns?

[Antonio Carlos Ribeiro]

Start by guarding nothing ($guarded = [];), to test mate. Then you move to what you really need.

[Clark T.]

Nevermind i see what you meant, and that worked perfectly, could you share why that made it work so i'll know in the future?

[Clark T.]

let us continue this discussion in chat