Laravel saving data to two locations - php

Question

I'm working on a larvel project where the user can create appointments. In addition I've created another model called clients so when a user creates an appointment the users "client" data is saved.
In my appointments controller I have the following: -
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->validate($request, [
'name' => 'required',
]);
//create appointment
$apt = new Appointment;
$apt->name = $request->input('name');
$apt->user_id = auth()->user()->id;
$apt->save();
//create client
$client = new Client;
$client->first_name = $request->input('name');
$client->user_id = auth()->user()->id;
$client->save();
return redirect('/appointments')->with('success', 'Appointment created');
}
When saving the data it works and stores the data in the clients table however I know this isn't the cleanest way of saving the data, but what is the "laravel" way of doing this?

Answer 1

There's nothing wrong with your code. It's totally fine keeping it that way.
I prefer to say Model::create() to create models in one statement.
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->validate($request, [
'name' => 'required',
]);
Appointment::create([
'name' => request('name'),
'user_id' => auth()->id()
]);
Client::create([
'first_name' => request('name'),
'user_id' => auth()->id,
]);
return redirect('/appointments')->with('success', 'Appointment created');
}
You can also use tap() function:
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->validate($request, [
'name' => 'required',
]);
tap(Appointment::create(['name' => request('name'), 'user_id' => auth()->id()]), function ($newAppoinment) {
Client::create([
'first_name' => $newAppoinment->name,
'user_id' => auth()->id,
]);
});
return redirect('/appointments')->with('success', 'Appointment created');
}
Or the best approach could be using model events:
class Appointment extends Model
{
public static function boot()
{
parent::boot();
static::created(function ($appointment) {
Client::create([
'user_id' => $appoinment->user_id,
'first_name' => $appoinment->name,
])
});
}
}