tryWithTrashed or secureWithTrashed

[kobe-ra]

hi, i've been using laravel professionally for ~ 5 years now, so i would love to contribute, but so far i don't know how. if anyone would share some tips i'd be grateful.
code like $data['fileable_type']::withTrashed()->get() will error, if the class doesn't use SoftDeletes.

my proposition is to add a method tryWithTrashed or similar name that would look like an improved version of this

if (in_array(SoftDeletes::class, class_uses_recursive($this))) {
    return $q->withTrashed();
}
return $q;

now i found that withTrashed method comes from addWithTrashed in Database/Eloquent/SoftDeletingScope.php, but the new method couldn't be added there, since model wouldn't have access to it.

where could it be placed? i was lookin at places like Database/Query/Builder.php or Database/Eloquent/Builder.php but i'm not sure how to test code i'd add there.

any help is appreciated.
thanks.

[henzeb]

I doubt they will merge this... but something like this should go in Model or in a trait. In your case I suggest creating a helper method.

tryWithTrashed($data['fileable_type'])->get();

The reason why I think they won't merge this is that they would have to make an exception for all possible situations. withoutTrash , onlyTrashed etc, and that's just the trash related ones. You have to come up with a more generic solution.

[kobe-ra]

that's a good point. with this in mind, i would imagine a method like safeSoftDeletes(fn), so we could call safeSoftDeletes(withTrashed()), or safeSoftDeletes(onlyTrashed()), and the method would call its argument if SoftDeletes is used on that model.
as for my own project - i have this solved with a helper, i was just lookin for something cleaner.
do you think this could work?