README

Laravel Staging allows you to stage (draft) Eloquent models and their nested relationships into a clean, separate system before committing them permanently to your main database.

• Stage parent models like Patient, Post, Order, etc.
• Stage related models like Sales, Items, Comments, etc.
• Hydrate full Eloquent models from staged data (not just arrays)
• Promote staged data to production tables cleanly
• Keep your main database structure untouched — no intrusive columns added!

Perfect for multi-step forms, draft publishing systems, and modular deferred saving workflows.

Installation

You can install the package via Composer:

composer require albaroody/staging

You can publish and run the staging migration with

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="staging-migrations"
php artisan migrate

You can publish the config file with:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="staging-config"

Usage

1. Add the Stagable trait to your model:

use Albaroody\\Staging\\Traits\\Stagable;

class Patient extends Model
{
    use Stagable;
}

1. Stage a model:

// Option 1: Stage an existing model instance
$patient = new Patient([
    'name' => 'John Doe',
]);

$stagingId = $patient->stage();

// Option 2: Stage a new model using static method
$stagingId = Patient::stageNew([
    'name' => 'John Doe',
]);

1. Load a staged model:

$stagedPatient = Patient::findStaged($stagingId);

// Now you can use it like a normal model
echo $stagedPatient->name;

1. Promote a staged model to the database:

$realPatient = $stagedPatient->promoteFromStaging();

// The staging entry is automatically deleted after promotion

HasMany Relationships

The library supports staging hasMany relationships, allowing you to create multiple child records before saving the parent.

Basic Usage

1. Stage multiple children at once:

$stockLevels = [
    ['quantity' => 100, 'location' => 'Warehouse A', '_sort_order' => 0],
    ['quantity' => 50, 'location' => 'Warehouse B', '_sort_order' => 1],
];

$stagingIds = StockLevel::stageMany($stockLevels);

1. Link staged children to a parent:

// Stage the parent first
$product = new Product(['name' => 'Widget', 'price' => 10.00]);
$productStagingId = $product->stage();

// Link staged children to parent
StockLevel::linkStagedToParent($stagingIds, $productStagingId, Product::class);

1. Find staged children by parent:

$stagedChildren = StockLevel::findStagedChildren($productStagingId, Product::class);

foreach ($stagedChildren as $child) {
    echo $child['data']['location']; // 'Warehouse A', 'Warehouse B'
}

1. Save staged children when parent is saved:

// Save the parent
$realProduct = $product->promoteFromStaging();

// Save all staged children with the parent's ID
$createdIds = StockLevel::saveStagedChildren(
    $realProduct->id,
    $productStagingId,
    Product::class,
    'product_id' // foreign key column name
);

Automatic Child Saving

You can configure models to automatically save staged children when the parent is created via HTTP request:

1. Define hasMany relationships in your model:

use Albaroody\Staging\Traits\Stagable;

class Product extends Model
{
    use Stagable;

    protected static function getHasManyRelationships(): array
    {
        return [
            'stock_levels' => [
                'model' => StockLevel::class,
                'foreign_key' => 'product_id',
            ],
        ];
    }
}

1. Create parent via HTTP request with staging IDs in the request:

// In your controller's store method
public function store(Request $request)
{
    // Stage children first (if coming from form)
    $stockLevelIds = StockLevel::stageMany([
        ['quantity' => 100, 'location' => 'Warehouse A'],
        ['quantity' => 50, 'location' => 'Warehouse B'],
    ]);

    // Stage parent
    $product = new Product($request->only(['name', 'price']));
    $productStagingId = $product->stage();

    // Link children
    StockLevel::linkStagedToParent($stockLevelIds, $productStagingId, Product::class);

    // Create product - staging IDs must be in the request for automatic saving
    $product = Product::create($request->only(['name', 'price']) + [
        '_staging_id' => $productStagingId,
        'stock_levels_staging_ids' => $stockLevelIds,
    ]);

    // Children are automatically saved with product_id set!
    return $product;
}

Note: The automatic child saving works by checking the request for _staging_id and {relationship_name}_staging_ids keys. These keys must be present in the request when creating the parent model.

Get Staged Collection for Display

Get a collection of staged objects for display in forms or tables:

$stagingIds = StockLevel::stageMany([
    ['quantity' => 100, 'location' => 'Warehouse A'],
    ['quantity' => 50, 'location' => 'Warehouse B'],
]);

$collection = StockLevel::getStagedCollection($stagingIds);

// Use like Eloquent models
foreach ($collection as $item) {
    echo $item->location; // 'Warehouse A', 'Warehouse B'
    echo $item->is_staged; // true
}

Staging Endpoints (Optional)

You can use the included Route macro to easily add staging endpoints to your controllers:

// In routes/web.php or routes/api.php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::resourceWithStage('products', ProductController::class);

This will create:

• POST /products/stage - Stage a product (in addition to standard resource routes)
• All standard resource routes (GET /products, POST /products, etc.)

Your controller should implement a stage method:

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class ProductController extends Controller
{
    public function stage(Request $request)
    {
        $validatedData = $request->validate([
            'name' => 'required|string',
            'price' => 'required|numeric',
        ]);

        $product = new Product($validatedData);
        $stagingId = $product->stage();

        return response()->json([
            'message' => 'Product staged successfully.',
            'staging_id' => $stagingId,
        ]);
    }
}

Note: Your Product model must use the Stagable trait for the stage() method to be available.

Storing References to Staged Models

You can store references to staged models in your attributes (useful for belongsTo relationships):

// Stage supplier first
$supplierStagingId = Supplier::stageNew(['name' => 'Acme Corp']);

// Stage product with reference to staged supplier
$productStagingId = Product::stageNew([
    'name' => 'Widget',
    'supplier_staging_id' => $supplierStagingId, // Store reference
]);

// Later, when promoting, you'll need to handle the relationship manually:
$stagedProduct = Product::findStaged($productStagingId);
$stagedSupplier = Supplier::findStaged($stagedProduct->supplier_staging_id);

$realSupplier = $stagedSupplier->promoteFromStaging();
$stagedProduct->supplier_id = $realSupplier->id; // Set actual foreign key
$realProduct = $stagedProduct->promoteFromStaging();

Features

✅ Stage any Eloquent model as a draft
✅ Stage multiple children at once with stageMany()
✅ Link staged children to staged parents
✅ Automatic saving of hasMany children when parent is created
✅ Preserve sort order for staged items
✅ Get staged collections for display (model-like objects)
✅ Clean promotion to production tables
✅ No intrusive columns in your main tables

Enjoy easy staging without cluttering your main table with extra columns!

Testing

composer test

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Security Vulnerabilities

Please review our security policy on how to report security vulnerabilities.

Credits

• Albaroody
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.