The once() helper in static methods in a parent class.

[bjhijmans]

I've been using the new once() helper in Laravel 11, and I found behavior that surprised me.

abstract class Parent
{
    public static function load()
    {
        return once(fn () => File::get(static::$path));
    }
}

class ChildA extends Parent
{
    protected static string $path = 'path1';
}


class ChildB extends Parent
{
    protected static string $path = 'path2';
}

Now when I call ChildA::load() and then ChildB::load(), I get the result from ChildA both times because the once hash only takes into account the class that it is in, not the class that it was called from. It puts Parent::class into the hash but not ChildA::class.

If they weren't static, I'd call (new ChildA)->load() and (new ChildB)->load() and get the correct results because they are different instances.

There is nothing about this in the documentation (nor, indeed, anything about using once() in static methods at all). I think it should be possible to get the calling class from the callable by reflection.

This behavior feels like a bug to me. I definitely expected it to work differently, but that's my personal opinion. What do you think?

[henzeb]

Does this behavior not exist in spatie's once?

[bjhijmans]

I never used the Spatie package, but from the code it looks like it does the same thing the Laravel version does.