how does laravel UPDATE method work - php

Question

I am working on this laravel project where user can upload an avatar image. My users table does not have any column yet to store the file location. So i was testing this in phpunit following the TDD series in laracast.
After the file is uploaded successfully and moved to the desired location in the server, i called the update method on the authenticated user like below:
$user = auth()->user();
$user->update(['avatar_location' => 'avatars/avatar.jpg']);
Note that avatar_location is not yet there on the users table. I expected this to fail but it didn't. I tried to find out what was going on so i followed through to the update() method in the model class:
//file Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Model.php
public function update(array $attributes = [], array $options = [])
{
//dd($attributes); //prints 'avatar_location"=>"avatars/avatar.jpg'
if (! $this->exists) {
//dd($attributes);
return false;
}
return $this->fill($attributes)->save($options);
}
till this point the dd($attribute) prints the value that i passed to the update() method.
So i followed into the fill() method that is being called with the attribute parameter. However when i die dumped the received parameter from inside the fill() method i am not seeing the key=>value pair that i passed. Instead it was showing the other attributes of the user:
/**
* Fill the model with an array of attributes.
*
* #param array $attributes
* #return $this
*
* #throws \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\MassAssignmentException
*/
public function fill(array $attributes)
{
//dd($attributes);
//does not print 'avatar_location"=>"avatars/avatar.jpg'
//rather, prints:
//array:4 [
// "name" => "Armand Mraz"
// "email" => "akautzer#example.net"
// "password" => "$2y$10$h7OG9/Toh31MsyFQc8lfg.wHeQC7maP4Bh37bea.DXU//IuRuXZi."
// "remember_token" => "X0udISwEEM"
]
$totallyGuarded = $this->totallyGuarded();
foreach ($this->fillableFromArray($attributes) as $key => $value) {
$key = $this->removeTableFromKey($key);
// The developers may choose to place some attributes in the "fillable" array
// which means only those attributes may be set through mass assignment to
// the model, and all others will just get ignored for security reasons.
if ($this->isFillable($key)) {
$this->setAttribute($key, $value);
} elseif ($totallyGuarded) {
throw new MassAssignmentException($key);
}
}
return $this;
}
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why?
can anyone please explain?
And why the update method is not failing even though i am trying to update a column that does not exist?
Thanks,Yeasir

Answer 1

When you're updating an object, Laravel is trying to match the keys of the array of data and the list of fillable fields. All pairs of key/valye missing from the fillable fields are not considered. It's the reason why it's not failing.
You have to update the fillable field list (property $fillable) in your user model.
Have a look at the documentation.
If you add avatar_location in your fillable fields list and the field doesn't exist, in this case, it will throw an exception.