Laravel Eloquent Hack: Automatically Load Relationships and Select Columns 🚀

SelectEveryTimeGlobalScopeExample.php

<?php

// In Laravel, we have the $with property to automatically load a relationship every time.
// However, selecting a specific column by default for every model query doesn't seem possible...
// but here's a hack I found! 

class Post extends Model
{
    // To automatically load the 'author' relationship on every query
    protected $with = ['author'];

    // Boot the model to apply the global scope
    protected static function boot(): void
    {
        parent::boot();

        // Adding a global scope to always include 'user_id' in the select statement
        static::addGlobalScope('user_id', function (Builder $query): void {
            // Get the columns that have been selected for the query
            $columns = $query->getQuery()->columns;

            // Check if specific columns are being selected and 'user_id' is not among them
            if ($columns !== null && !in_array('*', $columns) && !in_array('user_id', $columns)) {
                // Add 'user_id' to the selected columns
                $query->addSelect('user_id');
            }

            // If no columns are specified, initialize with 'select()' to ensure the scope works
            if ($columns === null) {
                $query->select();
            }
        });
    }

    // Define the relationship with 'author'
    public function author()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
    }

    // Other model methods and properties...
}