Laravel - Override model ID

Question

I'm working on an ebook management system. Instead of an auto-incrementing integer primary key, I'm using UUIDs, which works fine:

protected static function boot()
{
    parent::boot();

    static::creating(function ($model) {
        $model->{$model->getKeyName()} = Uuid::generate()->string;
    });
}

I also disabled PK incrementing on the model:

public $incrementing = false;

Now the EPUB standard suggests publishers to assign every book a UUID, if possible, so I thought it would be neat to use an existing UUID if the file provides it, otherwise generate a new one for the library.
So I added id to the $fillable array of my model and set the ID conditionally in my create controller method:

if (array_key_exists('uuid', $epubMetaData)) {
    $book->id = $epubMetaData['uuid'];
}

Then I populate the rest of my fields and $book->save() the book. It ends up with a newly generated UUID, even if there is one in the $epubMetaData array... So I suspect Laravel decides to ignore my ID. Is there anything I've missed?

Answer 1

Well, you aren't checking if the id is already set in your creating callback:

static::creating(function ($model) {
    if (!$model->id) {
       $model->id = Uuid::generate()->string;
    }
});