Harris Raftopoulos

Laravel continues to improve developer experience with the addition of requestException(), a convenience method that streamlines creating HTTP client exceptions for testing. When testing code that interacts with external APIs, you often need to simulate error responses to ensure your application handles failures gracefully. Previously, creating a RequestException for testing

Bulk inserting Eloquent models but need casts and timestamps applied? Laravel's new fillAndInsert() method provides an elegant solution by handling model casting and attribute preparation during mass insertion. When performing bulk insertions in Laravel, you often face a trade-off: use insert() for efficiency but lose Eloquent's

Feature flags and migrations don't always play well together. Laravel's new shouldRun() method solves this by letting you conditionally execute migrations based on your application's state. When working with feature flags or phased rollouts, you might want certain database changes to only apply when

Need to confidently extract a single matching item from an array in Laravel? The new Arr::sole() method brings the power of Eloquent's 'sole' functionality to plain PHP arrays. When working with arrays, you sometimes need to retrieve an item with confidence that it's

Working with HTML content stored in your database? Laravel v12.4 introduces the AsHtmlString cast, providing an elegant way to handle HTML-formatted attributes in your Eloquent models. When dealing with rich content or formatted text in your database, you often need to display it without HTML escaping. Laravel has long

Need to get model attributes while excluding sensitive or unnecessary fields? Laravel's new Model::except() method complements the existing only() method by doing exactly the opposite. When working with Eloquent models, you often need to retrieve a subset of model attributes, perhaps to pass to a view or

Need to track counters or metrics across your Laravel application? The new increment and decrement methods for Context provide a simple, elegant solution for maintaining counters without complex state management. Laravel's Context system allows you to store and access data across different parts of your application. With the

Working with HasManyThrough relationships in Laravel but only need a specific record? The new CanBeOneOfMany support lets you easily access the latest, oldest, or custom-filtered model with clean, expressive syntax. Laravel's Eloquent ORM already provided powerful ways to work with complex relationships. Now, with the addition of CanBeOneOfMany

Debugging API responses in Laravel tests just got easier with the new ddBody() method. This convenient addition helps you quickly inspect response content without disrupting your testing workflow. When writing feature tests for APIs, you often need to examine response content to understand why a test is failing. Previously, you