Hiding attributes in model in CodeIgniter 4

Question

I have a CodeIgniter 4 Model.
When I return data from it with find()/findAll(), it returns all the attributes that are present in the model.

$userModel->findAll();

I'd like to hide some of them, for example, I don't want to return the dates (created_at, updated_at).

I tried to create an Entity object and return it, but it also returns everything.

Basically what I'd like to do is to have functionality like in Laravel, where you have a $hidden protected array in the Model.

I've been experimenting with the afterFind callback, but I don't like the solution. Mainly because there is a difference in the $data array when you use find() vs findAll()

protected $afterFind = ['prepareOutput'];

protected function prepareOutput(array $data) {
    return $data;
}

$data['data'] is the actual data when using find()
$data['data'] is an array of arrays when using findAll();
Which kinda makes sense, but then I have to be sure to modify the data according to the method used.

Is there something I am missing in the documentation? Can this be done in a simpler way?

Answer 1

So I came up with this, but I'm still open to better and nicer solutions.

First I created my own Model and added the logic to hide some attributes:

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use CodeIgniter\Model;

class MyBaseModel extends Model {

    protected $hidden = [];

    public function prepareOutput(array $data) {

        // if the hidden array is empty, we just return the original dta
        if (sizeof($this->hidden) == 0) return $data;

        // if no data was found we return the original data to ensure the right structure
        if (!$data['data']) return $data;

        $resultData = [];

        // We want the found data to be an array, so we can loop through it.
        // find() and first() return only one data item, not an array
        if (($data['method'] == 'find') || ($data['method'] == 'first')) {
            $data['data'] = [$data['data']];
        }

        if ($data['data']) {
            foreach ($data['data'] as $dataItem) {
                foreach ($this->hidden as $attributeToHide) {
                    // here we hide the unwanted attributes, but we need to check if the return type of the model is an array or an object/entity
                    if (is_array($dataItem)) {
                        unset($dataItem[$attributeToHide]);
                    } else {
                        unset($dataItem->{$attributeToHide});
                    }
                }
                array_push($resultData, $dataItem);
            }
        }

        // return the right data structure depending on the method used
        if (($data['method'] == 'find') || ($data['method'] == 'first')) {
            return ['data' => $resultData[0]];
        } else {
            return ['data' => $resultData];
        }

    }

}

Now I can extend my existing models and fill in which attributes I want to hide:

<?php namespace App\Models;
    
use App\Entities\User;

class UserModel extends MyBaseModel {

    protected $table = 'users';
    protected $primaryKey = 'id';

    protected $returnType = User::class;
    protected $useSoftDeletes = false;

    protected $allowedFields = ['email', 'password', 'first_name', 'last_name'];

    protected $useTimestamps = true;
    protected $createdField = 'created_at';
    protected $updatedField = 'updated_at';

    protected $allowCallbacks = true;
    protected $afterFind = ['prepareOutput'];
    protected $hidden = ['created_at', 'updated_at'];

}