Twinkle

Create a custom Eloquent cast to turn attributes into rich “value objects” (or any complex type) automatically. Implement the CastsAttributes interface (or Castable) in a class with get() and set() methods, then register it on your model’s $casts:

// app/Casts/JsonSettingsCast.php
namespace App\Casts;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Database\Eloquent\CastsAttributes;

class JsonSettingsCast implements CastsAttributes
{
    public function get($model, string $key, $value, array $attributes)
    {
        return new SettingsCollection(json_decode($value, true));
    }

    public function set($model, string $key, $value, array $attributes)
    {
        return [$key => json_encode(
            $value instanceof SettingsCollection
                ? $value->toArray()
                : (array) $value
        )];
    }
}

// In your model
protected $casts = [
    'settings' => \App\Casts\JsonSettingsCast::class,
];

Now $model->settings is always a SettingsCollection, and serialization is handled for you.