Laravel / Lumen ReadOnly Model? - php

Question

There are some tables in our system which are being fed using 3rd party APIs and our system is supposed only read data from them and never Insert or Update anything.
Is there any feature in Laravel/Lumen, where we can mention in the Model to disallow/disable insert/update queries like we have the option public $timestamps = false; to disable the timestamps?
The tables are in same database else we would have restricted based on MySQL user.

Answer 1

There are a few ways.
OPTION 1: Probably the quickest is this "read-only" model trait. https://github.com/michaelachrisco/ReadOnlyTraitLaravel
It protects you from...
create
forceCreate
save
update
firstOrCreate
firstOrNew
delete
destroy
restore
forceDelete
performDeleteOnModel
push
finishSave
performUpdate
touch
insert
truncate
OPTION 2: A completely different way to do it is on the db config and model connection. So, this has 2 parts.
project/config/database.php
Duplicate and tweak the db connection.
'mysql' => [
'driver' => 'mysql',
'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
...
'readonly' => [
'driver' => 'mysql',
'read' => [
'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1')
],
'write' => [
'host' => 'this.will.404'
],
...
project/app/MyReadOnlyModel.php
class MyReadOnlyModel extends Model
{
protected $connection = 'readonly';
...
}
If you are caught in the trap of wanting the Model to be writable sometimes... I would suggest having 2 models on the same table.
app/Normal/MyModel.php
app/ReadOnly/MyModel.php

Answer 2

yes,
as a secure way:
as you can restricting some actions on Database.
ReadOnly Model
but you can disable the eloquent models too.
laravel models are extended from Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model
you can extend an ReadOnlyModel from Model.
then extend any model you want from that class.
this class should Override any method which writes data in db,
so i follow the source code:
Update and updateOrFail, push and etc was using used Model->save() method.
While create,creteOrFail , delete and etc were places in Builder which uses Model->save() method
The save() method used performUpdate or performInsert with someevent triggering ...
so the simplest thing you can do to stop model from touching databases is to implement:
<?php
namespace App\ReadOnlyDB;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
/**
* Just Extend all of Your Models from This Class
*
*/
class ReadOnlyModel extends Model
{
public function save(){
// do nothing
}
}
save() methods in Relation and BelongsTo classes would use Model->save() method too.

Answer 3

The most secure way will be to create a second MySQL user with the readonly only on the tables.
Then in Laravel you can create a specific connection with the restricted MySQL user in your config/database.php.
Then in the Model specify the wanted connection through the protected $connection property.

Answer 4

I think the only proper way to manage this is to have access restrictions at the MySQL user side. Here's why:
If you are stubbing (disabling) save/update methods from the Eloquent class, you only disable save/updates for your own code. This is analogous to locking a door while hanging the key on the door handle. Nothing prevents you from doing the saves/updates since you are not bound to use the Eloquent class.
In addition, 3rd party packages may persist data which does not depend on your code. You basically have to check every single line of code of theirs to make sure your database is not updated.
Therefore, apply these restrictions at the database user level. Then, when for some reason your (or anyone elses) code calls $myModel->save(), you should face an exception from the ORM that states you do not have permission. Then, handle it accordingly (like returning a particular HTTP status code).

Answer 5

Create an additional mySql user with read-only privileges.
in .env file add the following
DB_CONNECTION_SECOND=mysql
DB_HOST_SECOND=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT_SECOND=3306
DB_DATABASE_SECOND=database
DB_USERNAME_SECOND=user_2
DB_PASSWORD_SECOND=secret
in config/database.php add the following
'mysql2' => [
'driver' => env('DB_CONNECTION_SECOND'),
'host' => env('DB_HOST_SECOND'),
'port' => env('DB_PORT_SECOND'),
'database' => env('DB_DATABASE_SECOND'),
'username' => env('DB_USERNAME_SECOND'),
'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD_SECOND'),],
in your controller specify the connection name..
DB::connection('mysql2')->select(...);

Answer 6

Maybe using an empty fillable attribute in your model resolve your problem!
protected $fillable = [];

Answer 7

Set a model accessor to throw an exception when touching an attribute.
But this is more of a read-only attribute instead of a read-only model since it requires one accessor per attribute.
use Exception;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\Attribute;
protected function value(): Attribute
{
return Attribute::make(
set: fn () => throw new Exception('Model is readonly'),
);
}