Eloquent serialization with hidden (deprecated) attributes

[rseon]

Hello all,

As part of a migration strategy, I had to move an attribute (called name) from a table to a related pivot.
First, I want to deprecate this attribute, like this :

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\Attribute;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class User extends Model {
    public $hidden = ['name'];
    public function name(): Attribute
    {
        throw new \Exception('Attribute name is deprecated');
    }
}

So when I want to get this attribute with $user->name the exception is correctly thrown.

But when I have to serialize it (eg using $user->toArray()), that attribute is still present because the exception is thrown.
If I remove my attribute casting, the attribute is correclty hidden (eg if I dump it), but the exception is not thrown anymore if I call $user->name.

From the exception stack trace, I think the problem is with this method : getAttributeMarkedMutatorMethods in the trait Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Concerns\HasAttributes (read the source here : https://github.com/laravel/framework/blob/9.x/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Concerns/HasAttributes.php#L2221)

As my attribute name is overriden by a method, the trait try to invoke it, although the attribute is hidden, so the exception is thrown.

Do you think it could be a bug, or that I misunderstood something ?

PS : In addition, I created a Laravel example in this repository : https://github.com/rseon/laravel-deprecate-attribute

[Kristories]

It seems like this behavior is intended, as the hidden property only hides attributes from being included in the array representation of the model. The toArray method only checks the hidden property and does not account for custom attribute casting, which is why the exception is thrown in your case.

You could consider using the $appends property instead of custom attribute casting to hide the deprecated name attribute in the serialized representation of your model.