CategoryApiModel.php

<?php

namespace App\Connectors\Zest\ApiModels;

use App\ApiModels\Category as BaseCategory;

/**
 * class Category
 *
 * Convert API response to App\ApiModels\Category
 *
 * @package App\Connectors\Zest\ApiModels
 */
class Category extends BaseCategory
{
    /**
     * Fill the class properties using API response
     *
     * @param \Illuminate\Support\Collection $category
     * @return $this
     */
    public function hydrate($category)
    {
        return $this->setCode($category->get('code'))
            ->setName($category->get('name'))
            ->setImage($category->get('image'))
            ->setLink($category->get('link'))
            ->setDescription($category->get('description'));
    }
}

?>
///////////////////////////// BASE CATEGORY API MODEL //////////////////////////////
<?php

namespace App\ApiModels;

/**
 * class Category
 *
 * Represent the Category type for the shopbot
 *
 * @package App\ApiModels
 */
abstract class Category extends BaseApiModel
{
    /**
     * @var string
     */
    protected $code;

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    protected $name;

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    protected $image;

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    protected $link;

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    protected $description;

    /**
     * @var float|string
     */
    protected $total;

    /**
     * @var App\ApiModels\ProductsCollection
     */
    protected $products;
}
?>


///////////////////////// THE DEFAULT BASE API MODEL FOR ALL ///////////////////////////////////
<?php

namespace App\ApiModels;

use App\Traits\CanAccessProperties;

/**
 * class BaseApiModel
 *
 * The base class for all the models
 *
 * @package App\ApiModels
 */
abstract class BaseApiModel
{
    use CanAccessProperties;

    /**
     * Create an object from API response
     *
     * @param mixed $incoming
     * @return mixed
     */
    public abstract function hydrate($incoming);
}

I think we should have a couple of extra methods in AbstractApiModel:

• set - lets you set multiple properties in one go
• copyProperties - receives an instance & a list of property names, and mirrors those properties out of the passed instance

/**
 * Set multiple properties in one go
 *
 * @param array|\Illuminate\Support\Collection $values key value pairs - keys representing properties to set
 * @return $this
 */
public function set($values)
{
    foreach ($values as $key => $value) {
        $this->$key = $value;
    }

    return $this;
}

/**
  * Copy properties - copies a list of properties out of a passed instance into the current model
  *
  * @param object $instance instance to copy properties out of
  * @param array $properties a list of properties to copy over
  * @return $this;
  */
public function copyProperties($instance, $properties)
{
    $values = collect($properties)
        ->mapWithKeys(function($property) use ($instance) {
            return [$property => $instance[$property]];
        });

    return $this->set($values);
}

Your hydrate docs should be updated to return $this so it can be chained.

Now your hydrate can look like this:

    /**
     * Create an object from API response
     *
     * @param mixed $incoming
     * @return $this
     */
    public abstract function hydrate($incoming)
    {
        return $this->copyProperties($incoming, [
            'code',
            'name',
            'image',
            'link',
            'description',
        ]);

        // old way
        // $this->set([
        //     'code' => $category->get('code'),
        //     'name' => $category->get('name'),
        //     'image' => $category->get('image'),
        //     'link' => $category->get('link'),
        //     'description' => $category->get('description'),
        // ]);
    }

This makes the code easier to read & cuts out all the boilerplate