Generic Eloquent repository example

ArticleRepository.php

<?php

class ArticleRepository {
    
    /**
     * Because of how Eloquent works, an instance of a model is also a starting point to 
     * execute queries on it. This class should be instantiated by Laravel's IoC (e.g. 
     * constructor injection on a higher class, or App::make) so you never actually should 
     * need to do "new ArticleRepository(new Article)".
     * 
     * @param Article $article
     */
    public function __construct(Article $article) {
        $this->model = $article;
    }
    
    /**
     * Generic "get by ID" method.
     * 
     * @param Int $id
     * @throws ModelNotFoundException
     * @return Article
     */
    public function get($id) {
        return $this->model->findOrFail($id);
    }
    
    /**
     * A simple query.
     * 
     * @return Collection
     */
    public function getPublished() {
        return $this->model->where('published', 1)->get();
    }
    
    /**
     * Filtering "by relation". Using usual-style eloquent relationships in your models 
     * actually breaks the repository pattern, because they don't respect your 
     * repositories. Thus, if you had a Topic class and wanted to fetch articles from it, 
     * you would instantiate an ArticleRepository within it and use this method, passing 
     * itself as the argument.
     * 
     * We're passing the _entire_ topic in here because other classes (including Topic) 
     * don't need to know what part of a topic this repository needs. It could use a slug 
     * instead of an ID, for instance.
     * 
     * @param Topic $topic
     * @return Collection
     */
    public function getFromTopic(Topic $topic) {
        return $this->model->where('topic_id', $topic->getId())->get();
    }
    
    /**
     * Store an article in the repository. This is like Eloquent's save() method; may it be 
     * updating or creating, you use this - basically telling the repository, "keep this". 
     * This acts as a single choke point for data storage, allowing you to hook on extra 
     * behavior, like invalidaing old caches.
     * 
     * Some people call is push() because they think of the repository as a collection. Some 
     * others call it put(). Or persist(). Call it whatever you want.
     * 
     * @param Article $article
     */
    public function push(Article $article) {
        $article->save(); // feeling dirty now? You should.
    }
    
}