Extending DB facade Laravel - php

Question

I would like to convert a timestamp and have some other values related to it. My question is how I can introduce my own method like DB::raw() that appends everything to the current select values.
So, for instance, for something like this
$user = DB::table('users')
->select('*', DB::timestamp('timestamp_column', 'convert_timezone', 'called_as'))
->where('id', 1)->first();
Let's assume that I am trying to get the value for created_at column and it's called as converted_created_at and it should return something like below.
{
id: 1,
name:'John Doe',
converted_created_at: {
'utc_time': 'created_at value as that is in utc by default',
'converted_time': 'timestamp converted into user timezone',
'diff': '10 hours ago' // difference between created_at and current timestamp
}
}
So, how do I introduce my own method that does this?
You can take example of any SQL database as you wish.
I know I can do that with Model but I wanted to see how to approach this problem using a facade.
Thank you in advance for your help.

Answer 1

First look here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/40615078/860099 - Try this Extend DB facade:
namespace App\Facades;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB as DBBase;
class DB extends DBBase {...}
and in config/app.php change
'DB' => Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB::class,
to
'DB' => App\Facades\DB::class,`
(i write code from head)
Alternative:
You can easily create helper class eg. DBTools witch static methods and inside that methods you will use DB and construct proper query. And use it like that DBTools::yourMethod(...)
As argument to that method you can give... QUERY here is example of calling this method
DBTools::yourMethod(User::query())->first();
and inside you can easyily manipulate that query and return updated version.
ALTERNATIVE: If your goal is to add some new filed in Model (json) that not exist in db but is generated then you can use $appends (look: mutators and appends)
class User extends Model
{
protected $appends = ['converted_created_at'];
...
public function getConvertedCreatedAtAttribute() {
return ...; // return generated value from other fields/sources
}

Answer 2

Thanks to #kamil for showing me the way.
I am writing an answer in case anyone in the future finds this helpful.
I have come up with my own method that helps to convert timezone easily without writing too much code inside select query for DB facade for PostgreSQL.
I have created a file like this now.
<?php
namespace App\Custom\Facade;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
class DBTools extends DB
{
/**
* Convert a timestamp
* #param $timestamp - timestamp to be converted
* #param bool $insideRaw - if this helper method is getting used inside DB::raw() method
* #param null $timezone
* #param null $format - time format
* #param null $calledAs - column to called as
* #return \Illuminate\Database\Query\Expression|string
*/
public static function convertTime($timestamp, $insideRaw = false, $timezone = null, $format = null, $calledAs = null)
{
if (Auth::check()) {
if (!$timezone)
$timezone = Auth::user()->timezone;
if (!$format)
$format = Auth::user()->time_format;
}
$query = "to_char($timestamp at time zone '$timezone', '$format')" . ($calledAs ? " as $calledAs" : '');
if (!$insideRaw) {
return DB::raw($query);
}
return $query;
}
}
Now this can be easily be called inside select for DB facade or inside DB::raw() in case you're handling much more complicated query.
Hope this helps someone.