Customizing Eloquent Attribute Data Types with Casting

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use App\Casts\JsonToArrayStringCast;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\AsCollection;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;

class Settings extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['user_id', 'preferences', 'features'];

    // Define attribute casts
    protected $casts = [
        'preferences' => 'array', // Casts JSON string to PHP array and vice-versa
        'features' => AsCollection::class, // Casts JSON string to Laravel Collection object
        'is_admin_flag' => 'boolean', // Casts 0/1 to boolean true/false
        'last_login_at' => 'datetime', // Casts timestamp/string to Carbon instance
        'custom_setting_object' => JsonToArrayStringCast::class // Using a custom cast class
    ];

    // If you define a custom cast class (App\Casts\JsonToArrayStringCast.php):
    // namespace App\Casts;
    // 
    // use Illuminate\Contracts\Database\Eloquent\CastsAttributes;
    // 
    // class JsonToArrayStringCast implements CastsAttributes
    // {
    //     public function get($model, $key, $value, array $attributes)
    //     {
    //         return json_decode($value, true);
    //     }
    // 
    //     public function set($model, $key, $value, array $attributes)
    //     {
    //         return json_encode($value);
    //     }
    // }
}

// Usage in a controller or elsewhere:

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\Settings;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class SettingsController extends Controller
{
    public function manageSettings()
    {
        // Create or find settings for a user
        $settings = Settings::firstOrCreate(
            ['user_id' => 1],
            [
                'preferences' => ['theme' => 'dark', 'notifications' => true],
                'features' => ['comments', 'likes'],
                'is_admin_flag' => 1,
                'last_login_at' => now(),
                'custom_setting_object' => ['key' => 'value']
            ]
        );

        echo "User Preferences (array): " . json_encode($settings->preferences) . " (Type: " . gettype($settings->preferences) . ")
";
        echo "First Feature (Collection): " . $settings->features->first() . " (Type: " . get_class($settings->features) . ")
";
        echo "Is Admin (boolean): " . ($settings->is_admin_flag ? 'Yes' : 'No') . " (Type: " . gettype($settings->is_admin_flag) . ")
";
        echo "Last Login At (Carbon instance): " . $settings->last_login_at->format('Y-m-d H:i:s') . " (Type: " . get_class($settings->last_login_at) . ")
";
        echo "Custom Setting Object (array from custom cast): " . json_encode($settings->custom_setting_object) . " (Type: " . gettype($settings->custom_setting_object) . ")
";

        // Update a setting
        $settings->preferences['notifications'] = false;
        $settings->features->push('sharing');
        $settings->is_admin_flag = false;
        $settings->save();

        echo "
Updated Preferences (notifications): " . json_encode($settings->preferences['notifications']) . "
";
        echo "Updated Features (Collection size): " . $settings->features->count() . "
";

        return "Attribute casting demonstrated. Check console/logs.";
    }
}