PHP Laravel save model properties via constructor - php

Question

I am trying to simply save a model to the database via a controller without setting the fields directly but instead having them set in the constructor of said object.
Here is the class handling the logic. If the commented out line
//$todoItem->item = $todo; is uncommented, it works fine and saves whatever is entered in $todo in the database. However, I would like to set that value in the constructor of the task object and not need to manually specify it. I found this question: Laravel with Eloquent doesn't save model properties on database suggesting I could set the property as protected and have it work, but that still does not.
NewTodo.php
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
class NewTodo extends Controller
{
public function saveTodoItem(Request $request)
{
$todo = $request->input('content');
$todoItem = new \App\Task($todo);
//$todoItem->item = $todo;
$todoItem->save();
return view('testview', ['name' => $todoItem->getItem()]);
}
}
Task.php
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Task extends Model
{
protected $item = null;
function __construct($newItem)
{
$this->item = $newItem;
}
function getItem()
{
return $this->item;
}
}
Summary, database entry being stored as blank unless $todo->item is manually set when from what I can $todo->item is being set in the constructor.

Answer 1

You don't need to specify these in the constructor. You can use Mass Assignment
Model:
class Task extends Model
{
protected $fillable = ['item'];
}
Controller:
class NewTodo extends Controller
{
public function saveTodoItem(Request $request)
{
$todo = $request->input('content');
$todoItem = new \App\Task::create(['item' => $todo]);
return view('testview', ['name' => $todoItem->getItem()]);
}
}