An Active Record implementation for Redis hashes in Laravel.

---

ActiveRedis provides you simple and efficient way to interact with Redis hashes using an Eloquent-like API.

Index

• Requirements
• Installation
• Usage
  • Creating Models
    • Model Identifiers
    • Model Timestamps
    • Model Casts
    • Model Events
    • Model Connection
  • Updating Models
  • Deleting Models
  • Expiring Models
  • Querying Models
    • Chunking
    • Searching
• Credits

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.1
• Redis >= 3.0
• Laravel >= 9.0

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require directorytree/activeredis

Usage

Creating Models

To get started, define a new ActiveRedis model:

namespace App\Redis;

use DirectoryTree\ActiveRedis\Model;

class Visit extends Model {}

Then, create models with whatever data you'd like:

Important

Without model casts defined, all values you assign to model attributes will be cast to strings, as that is their true storage type in Redis.

use App\Redis\Visit;

$visit = Visit::create([
    'ip' => request()->ip(),
    'url' => request()->url(),
    'user_agent' => request()->userAgent(),
]);

This will create a new Redis hash in below format:

{plural_model_name}:{key_name}:{key_value}

For example:

visits:id:f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410

Access attributes as you would expect on the model instance:

$visit->ip; // xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
$visit->url; // https://example.com
$visit->user_agent; // Mozilla/5.0 ...

Important

Before you begin using your model in production, consider possible searchable attributes that you may like to be part of your model schema, as these should not be modified once you have existing records.

Model Identifiers

When creating models, ActiveRedis will automatically generate a UUID for each model, assigned to the id attribute:

$visit->id; // "f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410"
$visit->getKey(); // "f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410"
$visit->getHashKey(); // "visits:id:f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410"

$visit->getKeyName(); // "id"
$visit->getBaseHash(); // "visits:id"
$visit->getHashPrefix(): // "visits"

You may provide your own ID if you'd prefer:

Important

Redis keys are case-sensitive. Be mindful of this, as it impacts queries, discussed below.

$visit = Visit::create([
    'id' => 'custom-id',
    // ...
]);

$visit->id; // "custom-id"
$visit->getHashKey(); // "visits:id:custom-id"

Attempting to create a model with an ID that already exists will result in a DuplicateKeyException:

Visit::create(['id' => 'custom-id']);

// DuplicateKeyException: A model with the key 'custom-id' already exists.
Visit::create(['id' => 'custom-id']);

Similarly, attempting to create a model with an empty ID will throw a InvalidKeyException:

// InvalidKeyException: A key is required to create a model.
Visit::create(['id' => '']);

To change the name of the field in which the model key is stored, override the key property:

namespace App\Redis;

use DirectoryTree\ActiveRedis\Model;

class Visit extends Model
{
    /**
     * The key name for the model.
     */
    protected string $key = 'custom_key';
}

ActiveRedis will always generate a new UUID in the key's attribute if you do not provide one.

To change this behaviour or generate your own unique keys, you may override the getNewKey() method:

Important

Do not generate keys with colons (:) or asterisks (*). They are reserved characters in Redis.

This also applies to values of searchable attributes.

namespace App\Redis;

use Illuminate\Support\Str;
use DirectoryTree\ActiveRedis\Model;

class Visit extends Model
{    
    /**
     * Generate a new key for the model.
     */
    protected function getNewKey(): string
    {
        return Str::uuid();
    }
}

Model Timestamps

Models will also maintain created_at and updated_at attributes:

Important

Timestamp attributes will be returned as Carbon instances when accessed.

$visit->created_at; // \Carbon\Carbon('2024-01-01 00:00:00')
$visit->updated_at; // \Carbon\Carbon('2024-01-01 00:00:00')

To only update a models updated_at timestamp, you may call the touch() method:

$visit->touch();

You may provide a timestamp attribute to touch as well:

$visit->touch('created_at');

To disable timestamps, you may override the timestamps property and set it to false:

class Visit extends Model
{
    /**
     * Indicates if the model should be timestamped.
     */
    public bool $timestamps = false;
}

If you need to customize the names of the columns used to store the timestamps, you may define CREATED_AT and UPDATED_AT constants on your model:

class Visit extends Model
{
    const CREATED_AT = 'creation_date';
    const UPDATED_AT = 'updated_date';
}

Model Casts

To cast model attributes to a specific type, you may define a casts property on the model:

class Visit extends Model
{
    /**
     * The attributes that should be cast to native types.
     */
    protected array $casts = [
        'user_id' => 'integer',
        'authenticated' => 'boolean',
    ];
}

When you access the attribute, it will be cast to the specified type:

$visit = new Visit([
    'user_id' => '1',
    'authenticated' => '1',
    // ...
]);

$visit->user_id; // (int) 1
$visit->authenticated; // (bool) true

$visit->getAttributes(); // ['user_id' => '1', 'authenticated' => '1'],

Here is a list of all supported casts:

• json
• date
• real
• array
• float
• string
• object
• double
• integer
• boolean
• datetime
• timestamp
• collection
• immutable_date
• immutable_datetime
• decimal:<precision>

Enum casts are also available:

use App\Enums\VisitType;

class Visit extends Model
{
    /**
     * The attributes that should be cast to native types.
     */
    protected array $casts = [
        'type' => VisitType::class,
    ];
}

$visit = Visit::create(['type' => VisitType::Unique]);
// Or:
$visit = Visit::create(['type' => 'unique']);

$visit->type; // (enum) VisitType::Unique

Model Events

ActiveRedis models dispatch several events, allowing you to hook into the following moments in a model's lifecycle: retrieved, creating, created, updating, updated, saving, saved, deleting, and deleted.

You may register listeners for these methods inside your model's booted method:

You may return false from an event listener on the creating, updating, or deleting events to cancel the operation.

class Visit extends Model
{
    /**
     * The "booted" method of the model.
     */
    protected static function booted(): void
    {
        static::creating(function (Visit $visit) {
            // ...
        });
        
        // ...
    }
}

If you prefer, you may also create a model observer:

class VisitObserver
{
    /**
     * Handle the "creating" event.
     */
    public function creating(Visit $visit): void
    {
        // ...
    }
}

And register it using the observe method:

use App\Redis\Visit;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Bootstrap any application services.
     */
    public function boot(): void
    {
        Visit::observe(VisitObserver::class);
    }
}

Model Connection

By default, models will use the default Redis connection defined in your Laravel configuration.

To use a different connection, you may override the connection property on the model:

class Visit extends Model
{
    /**
     * The Redis connection to use.
     */
    protected ?string $connection = 'visits';
}

Updating Models

You may update models using the update() method:

$visit->update([
    'ip' => 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx',
    'url' => 'https://example.com',
    'user_agent' => 'Mozilla/5.0 ...',
]);

Or by setting model attributes and calling the save() method:

$visit->ip = 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx';

$visit->save();

Deleting Models

To delete models, use the delete() method on the model instance:

$visit->delete();

Or, you may also delete models by their ID:

$deleted = Visit::destroy('f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410');

echo $deleted; // 1

You may delete multiple models by providing an array of IDs:

$deleted = Visit::destroy(['f195637b...', 'a195637b...']);

echo $deleted; // 2

Expiring Models

To expire models after a certain amount of time, use the setExpiry() method:

$visit->setExpiry(now()->addMinutes(5));

After 5 minutes have elapsed, the model will be automatically deleted from Redis.

To retrieve a model's expiry time, use the getExpiry() method:

Important

The value returned will be a Carbon instance, or null if the model does not expire.

$visit->getExpiry(); // \Carbon\Carbon|null

Querying Models

Querying models uses Redis' SCAN command to iterate over all keys in the model's hash set.

For example, when the Visit model is queried, the pattern visits:id:* is used:

SCAN {cursor} MATCH visits:id:* COUNT {count}

To begin querying models, you may call the query() method on the model:

$visits = Visit::query()->get();

This will iterate over all keys in the model's hash set and return a collection of models matching the pattern.

Missing model methods will be forwarded to the query builder, so you may call query methods dynamically on the model if you prefer.

$visits = Visit::get();

Finding

To retrieve specific models, you may use the find method:

$visit = Visit::find('f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410');

If you would like to throw an exception when the model is not found, you may use the findOrFail method:

Visit::findOrFail('missing'); // ModelNotFoundException

Chunking

You may chunk query results using the chunk() method:

Important

Redis does not guarantee the exact number of records returned in each SCAN iteration. See https://redis.io/docs/latest/commands/scan/#the-count-option for more information.

use App\Redis\Visit;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;

Visit::chunk(100, function (Collection $visits) {
    $visits->each(function ($visit) {
        // ...
    });
});

Or call the each method:

use App\Redis\Visit;

Visit::each(function (Visit $visit) {
    // ...
}, 100);

You may return false in the callback to stop the chunking query:

use App\Redis\Visit;

Visit::each(function (Visit $visit) {
    if ($visit->ip === 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx') {
        return false;
    }
});

Searching

Before attempting to search models, you must define which attributes you would like to be searchable on the model:

namespace App\Redis;

class Visit extends Model
{
    /**
     * The attributes that are searchable.
     */
    protected array $searchable = ['ip'];
}

Important

Consider searchable attributes to be part of your model schema. They should be defined before you begin using your model. Do not change these while you have existing records. Doing so will lead to models that cannot be retrieved without interacting with Redis manually.

When you define these attributes, they will be stored as a part of the hash key in the below format:

visits:id:{id}:ip:{ip}

For example:

visits:id:f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410:ip:127.0.0.1

If you do not provide a value for a searchable attribute, literal string null will be used as the value in the key:

visits:id:f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410:ip:null

When multiple searchable attributes are defined, they will be stored in alphabetical order from left to right in the hash key:

class Visit extends Model
{
    /**
     * The attributes that are searchable.
     */
    protected array $searchable = ['user_id', 'ip'];
}

For example:

visits:id:{id}:ip:{ip}:user_id:{user_id}

Tip

Because searchable attributes should not be modified while you have existing records, you may find it useful name your models in a way that references the searchable attributes. For example UserVisit.

$visit = UserVisit::create([
    'user_id' => 1,
    'ip' => request()->ip(),
]);

$visit->getHashKey(); // "user_visits:id:f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410:ip:127.0.0.1:user_id:1"

Once the searchable attributes have been defined, you may begin querying for them using the where() method:

// SCAN ... MATCH visits:id:*:ip:127.0.0.1:user_id:1
$visits = Visit::query()
    ->where('user_id', 1)
    ->where('ip', '127.0.0.1')
    ->get();

You may omit searchable attributes from the query and an asterisk will be inserted automatically:

// SCAN ... MATCH visits:id:*:ip:127.0.0.1:user_id:*
$visit = Visit::where('ip', '127.0.0.1')->first();

You may also use asterisks in your where clauses to perform wildcard searches:

// SCAN ... MATCH visits:id:*:ip:127.0.*:user_id:*
$visit = Visit::where('ip', '127.0.*')->first();

You may also use a string literal 'null' as a search value to query for models where the attribute is null:

// SCAN ... MATCH visits:id:*:ip:null:user_id:*
$visit = Visit::where('ip', 'null')->first();

Searchable attribute values may be updated at any time on models. If they have been changed, the existing model instance is deleted in Redis, and a new one is saved automatically:

$visit = Visit::create(['user_id' => 1]);

// HDEL visits:id:f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410:ip:127.0.0.1:user_id:1
// HSET visits:id:f195637b-7d48-43ab-abab-86e93dfc9410:ip:127.0.0.1:user_id:2
$visit->update(['user_id' => 2]);

Credits

This package is directly inspired from Laravel's Eloquent, and most features are direct ports to a Redis equivalent.

I am forever grateful for the work Taylor Otwell has produced.

If you can, support his work by purchasing a sponsorship, or one of his many Laravel based services.