Return Data if relation does exist. If not, return blueprint.

[ahoiroman]

Hello,

I'd like to solve an issue. In my controller I am calling:

CompanyData::from($company->loadMissing('location'));

If a new Company does not have a location yet, the result is always NULL, although the relation is loaded.

This can be explained by looking at the RelationalLazy. class:

public function resolve(): mixed
{
    return $this->model->{$this->relation} !== null ? ($this->value)() : null;
}

Okay - so now I created a little workaround:

location     : Lazy::when(fn() => $model->relationLoaded('location'),
                   fn() => $model->location()->exists() ? LocationData::optional($model->location)
                       : LocationData::empty()),

As you can see here, I am returning the LocationData if the location does exist - and if not I am returning a blueprint, as my Vue-frontend wants to work with company.location.

My question: Is there a more elegant way to solve this issue?

[Nir-An]

Hi @ahoiroman 👍

if I understand correctly
Relational Lazy properties could be helpful

Lazy::whenLoaded('location', $company, fn() => $company->location);

for default data issue you could use eloquent-relationships#default-models

According to Laravel Docs :

often referred to as the Null Object pattern and can help remove conditional checks in your code