Laravel: One Controller for multiple Models - php

Question

I'm currently rebuilding my vanilla-PHP-App with Laravel and I have the following problem.
I have multiple database-tables, that represent word categories (noun, verb, adverb, ...). For each table I created a separate Model, a route::resource and a separate resource-Controller. For example:
NomenController.php
public function show($id)
{
$vocab = Nomen::find($id);
return view('glossarium.vocab_update', compact('vocab'));
}
and
VerbController.php
public function show($id)
{
$vocab = Verb::find($id);
return view('glossarium.vocab_update', compact('vocab'));
}
...which are essentially the same except the Model class.
I don't want to create a separate Controller for each model, that does exactly the same. What would be the most simple and elegant way to solve this?
Should I just create a VocabController.php and add a parameter for the Model-name like:
Route::resource('/vocab/{category}', 'VocabController');
and then add a constructor method in this controller like
public function __construct ($category) {
if ($category == 'nomen') {
$this->vocab = App\Nomen;
}
else if ($category == 'verb') {
$this->vocab = App\Verb;
}
}
I wonder if there is a simpler method to do that. Can I somehow do this with Route Model Binding?
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Simply create a trait like this in App\Traits, (you can name it anything... Don't go with mine though... I feel its pretty lame... :P)
namespace App\Traits;
trait CommonControllerFunctions {
public function show($id) {
$modelObject = $this->model;
$model = $modelObject::find($id);
return view('glossarium.vocab_update', compact('model'));
}
}
and in your NomenController and VerbController, do this:
use App\Traits\CommonControllerFunctions;
class NomenController {
use CommonControllerFunctions;
protected $model = Nomen::class;
}
and
use App\Traits\CommonControllerFunctions;
class VerbController {
use CommonControllerFunctions;
protected $model = Verb::class;
}
Note: Please note that this example is just a work-around for your particular situation only... Everyone practices code differently, so this method might not be approved by all...

Answer 2

I think the simpliest way it to create only one controller, eg VocabController with methods nomen, verb and whatever you want.
Routes:
Route::get('/vocab/nomen/{nomen}', 'VocabController#item');
Route::get('/vocab/verb/{verb}', 'VocabController#item');
And the model binding:
Route::model('nomen', 'App\Nomen');
Route::model('verb', 'App\Varb');
Then your method shoud look like that:
public function item($item)
{
return view('glossarium.vocab_update', $item);
}
Keep in mind, that $item is already fetched model from the database.