Using Casts in Laravel Traits

When working with Laravel, traits are a powerful way to reuse code across multiple models. However, when it comes to defining attribute casts within a trait, directly using the $casts is not going to work because it won't merge by default.

To add $casts inside a trait, you'll be using Initializable traits and mergeCasts. When you define a method named initialize{TraitName} in a trait, Laravel automatically calls it when the model is booted.

Here’s how you can do it:

trait HasTimestamps
{
	protected function initializeHasTimestamps() {
		$this->mergeCasts([
			'created_at' => 'datetime',
			'updated_at' => 'datetime',
		]);
	}
}

Now, when you use this trait in a model, the casts will be merged with the model’s existing casts:

class User extends Model {
    use HasTimestamps;
    
    protected $casts = [
        'email_verified_at' => 'datetime',
    ];
}

If you found this article helpful, please leave a comment. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.