Laravel Updating Record with optional image - php

Question

I'm trying to recreate a simple blog functionality and allowing an admin to update a blog post.
My problem is the photo that has its name stored in the blog table under 'thumbnail' is not getting updated correctly. My save a new post function works but my update function does not work.
When you do an update without updating the image the rest of the blog items get updated but the photo name get set to blank and if you do try to update the image the photo does get moved but the field in the database is getting set to the temporary location (/Applications/MAMP/tmp/php/phpx1jwMA).
That may be two separate issues.
In the update form I added a hidden field with the photos name:
{{ Form::hidden('old_photo', $blog->thumbnail) }}
And it produces this in the form as expected:
<input name="old_photo" type="hidden" value="1391122313-2013 12 01_0567.JPG">
And in my controller I have this as my update function:
public function update($id) {
$input = Input::all();
$blog = Blog::find($id);
if(Input::hasFile('thumbnail')) {
$file = Input::file('thumbnail');
$name = time() . '-' . $file->getClientOriginalName();
$file = $file->move(public_path() . '/images/blog/', $name);
$blog->thumbnail = $name;
}
$blog->save();
return View::make('admin.blog.index', [
'blogs' => Blog::all()
]);
}
I'm trying to say in that code that if there is a new file in the thumbnail then create a unique name, move the file and set 'thumbnail' to that name (That is how my create function works) but if there has been no uploaded file to 'thumbnail' then set the 'thumbnail' to the old name.
Is there a better way to handle this process? Obviously there is because this way does not work. I am just learning Laravel and I have 3 books on it but none of them cover how to do this.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Instead of $blog->update($input); use $blog->save();. You already modified the model, just save it. With the update() method, all key/value pairs of the array you pass in will be assigned to the model.
Also you don't need your else case. If you don't want to change a models property just don't do it. You don't need to assign the value explicitly if you don't want to change it.
Omit your else case.
Side note on that:
Assigning Model properties manually e.g.
$model = Model::find(5);
$model->prop = 'val';
$model->save();
is better most of the time than Mass Assigning them e.g.
$model->find(5)->update($newvalues);
You have more control over what get's inserted and updated, when mass-assigning you have to take care of what's going to be assigned otherwise just every property could be changed. That's a security issue. (However laravel comes with $guarded and $fillable)
Also in your case you would not want to pass the whole input since you probably don't want certain fields to get updated if they did not change. So if nothing changed you had to explicitly exclude the Key/Value pairs you don't want to update when you just pass your whole Input to it (this is because the keys exist but the values are empty).
Well you get what I mean. When you assign your values manually you have full control on when and what you assign.
Happy Coding!