Laravel getDirty and getOriginal give same values on updating - php

Question

Using Laravel 5.4
I have a Job model which has a enum field on it with different statuses. These statuses change in many different places. I made a JobHistory model and migration which tracks those changes .
On my Job model i define the new laravel 5.4 way of tracking eloquent events:
/**
* The events that should be fired for eloquent actions
*
* #var array
*/
protected $events = [
'updating' => JobChangedStatus::class
];
Status changes are done like this:
/**
* Change the job status
*
* #param $status
*/
public function changeStatus($status)
{
$this->update([
'status' => $status,
]);
}
EventServiceProvider:
'App\Events\Jobs\JobChangedStatus' => [
'App\Listeners\Jobs\CreateJobHistory',
],
CreateJobHistory Listener:
$job = $event->job;
$jobHistory = new JobHistory();
$jobHistory->old_status = $job->getOriginal('status');
$jobHistory->new_status = $job->status;
$jobHistory->job()->associate($job);
$jobHistory->executor()->associate(Auth::user());
$jobHistory->save();
When i change my job status from e.g New to In_progress
My JobHistory table will look like this:
So the new_status and the old_status both give the old value. I tried using $job->getDirty() but when i print it it just gives back a empty array.
What am i doing wrong?

Answer 1

Usually I would achieve this inside an Observer. It feels a little awkward to see the events/listener setup like that.
In your AppServiceProvider.php:
public function boot()
{
App\Job::observe(App\Observers\JobObserver::class);
}
And then in App\Observers\JobObserver.php:
use App\Job;
use App\JobHistory;
class JobObserver{
public function updating(Job $job)
{
$jobHistory = new JobHistory();
$jobHistory->old_status = $job->getOriginal('status');
$jobHistory->new_status = $job->status;
$jobHistory->job()->associate($job);
$jobHistory->executor()->associate(Auth::user());
$jobHistory->save();
}
}
For eloquent models it makes the most sense (just my opinion) to use observers. The events/listeners model I use for listening to mail events, job events, possibly notifications, etc.
The other reason this may help you in your situation is if the event is being queued instead of ran synchronously, you will end up with a race condition and most cases the model will have been saved and that is why getDirty() has no keys. With observers, the operations are always ran synchronously and you will not run into a timing issue.