Twinkle

Use a custom Eloquent Attribute Cast to hydrate a rich Value Object (or DTO) instead of raw arrays or primitives.

1. Create a cast class that implements CastsAttributes (or the Castable interface):

   namespace App\Casts;
   
   use Illuminate\Contracts\Database\Eloquent\CastsAttributes;
   use App\ValueObjects\Money;
   
   class MoneyCast implements CastsAttributes
   {
       public function get($model, string $key, $value, array $attributes)
       {
           return new Money((int) $value);
       }
   
       public function set($model, string $key, $value, array $attributes)
       {
           return ['price' => $value instanceof Money
               ? $value->toCents()
               : (int) $value
           ];
       }
   }
   

2. Register it on your model’s $casts:

   class Order extends Model
   {
       protected $casts = [
           'price' => App\Casts\MoneyCast::class,
       ];
   }
   

Now every time you access →price you get a Money object (with methods for formatting, currency math, etc.), and it’s always serialized back correctly when saving. This cleanly encapsulates logic, ensures type safety, and keeps your models slim.