Custom String IDs in Laravel Models: A New Approach

Need to use custom unique identifiers in your Laravel models? The refactored HasUniqueStringIds trait provides a clean way to implement custom string IDs without overriding route binding queries.

Basic Usage

Create your custom ID trait:

trait HasTwrnsTrait
{
    use HasUniqueStringIds;

    public function newUniqueId()
    {
        return (string) Twrn::new();
    }

    protected function isValidUniqueId($value): bool
    {
        return Twrn::isValid($value);
    }
}

Real-World Example

Here's how to implement custom identifiers in your application:

class CustomIdentifierService
{
    public static function generate(): string
    {
        return 'PRD-' . strtoupper(uniqid()) . '-' . rand(1000, 9999);
    }

    public static function isValid(string $value): bool
    {
        return preg_match('/^PRD-[A-Z0-9]+-\d{4}$/', $value);
    }
}

trait HasCustomIdentifier
{
    use HasUniqueStringIds;

    public function newUniqueId(): string
    {
        return CustomIdentifierService::generate();
    }

    protected function isValidUniqueId($value): bool
    {
        return CustomIdentifierService::isValid($value);
    }
}

class Product extends Model
{
    use HasCustomIdentifier;

    protected $keyType = 'string';
    public $incrementing = false;
}

// Usage in routes
Route::get('/products/{product}', function (Product $product) {
    return $product;
});

// Product URLs will look like:
// /products/PRD-5F9E2B3A-1234

The HasUniqueStringIds trait makes it straightforward to implement custom string identifiers while maintaining Laravel's elegant route model binding.

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