Getting Laravel-Sluggable to work with Spatie Laravel Tags

[Rocketpilot]

Apologies for reposting this - I originally had it in Laravel Tags' discussion area but that appears to be a ghost town right now.

I've been having trouble getting routing via slug working with Laravel Tags. I haven't created a custom Tags model to add a Sluggable trait, which would probably work, but the Tags docs don't give a complete example and I'm not an advanced enough developer to fill in the missing pieces. I have a feeling that shouldn't be required as they're both packages by the same developer.

I see there's a config setting for choosing which slugger to use, but again the documentation stops before it spells out how to do it.

[ismaildasci]

Hey! 👋

It sounds like you want to use the Laravel-Sluggable package with Spatie Laravel Tags to generate slugs for tags, but you're running into some issues due to limited documentation. Let’s go through a straightforward way to make them work together without needing to create a fully custom Tags model.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Extend the Spatie Tag Model:
   Instead of creating a brand new Tags model, you can extend Spatie’s Tag model to add the Sluggable trait.

   First, create a new model in your app’s models directory:

   // app/Models/CustomTag.php
   namespace App\Models;
   
   use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
   use Spatie\Tags\Tag;
   use Cviebrock\EloquentSluggable\Sluggable;
   
   class CustomTag extends Tag
   {
       use Sluggable;
   
       /**
        * Return the sluggable configuration array for this model.
        *
        * @return array
        */
       public function sluggable(): array
       {
           return [
               'slug' => [
                   'source' => 'name',  // The field you want to generate the slug from
               ]
           ];
       }
   }

   Here, we’re using the name attribute to generate the slug, which is typical for tag slugs.

2. Update the Spatie Tags Configuration:
   In your config/tags.php file, tell Spatie Tags to use your new CustomTag model instead of the default Tag model.

   // config/tags.php
   'tag_model' => App\Models\CustomTag::class,

   This will ensure that whenever Spatie creates or interacts with tags, it uses your extended model with the Sluggable trait.

3. Add Slug Routing in Your Controller or Routes:
   Now, you can use slugs in your routes. For example, you might set up a route to display posts by tag:

   // routes/web.php
   use App\Models\CustomTag;
   
   Route::get('/tags/{slug}', function ($slug) {
       $tag = CustomTag::where('slug', $slug)->firstOrFail();
       $posts = $tag->posts; // assuming a relationship between tags and posts
   
       return view('tagged-posts', compact('tag', 'posts'));
   });

4. Migrate Existing Tags (If Needed):
   If you already have existing tags without slugs, you might need to generate slugs for them. You can do this with a simple artisan command or a script:

   // In a command or a Tinker session
   App\Models\CustomTag::all()->each(function ($tag) {
       $tag->slug = null;  // Reset the slug so it regenerates
       $tag->save();
   });

5. Test It:
   Now, whenever you create a tag, the slug field should automatically populate based on the name, thanks to the Sluggable trait. You can access tags by their slug in the URL and link directly to them.

Summary

1. Extend Spatie\Tags\Tag with a new CustomTag model and add Sluggable.
2. Update config/tags.php to use CustomTag.
3. Add routing to use slugs in URLs.
4. Regenerate slugs for existing tags if needed.

This approach avoids modifying the original Spatie package and leverages Laravel-Sluggable to handle slugs automatically. Let me know if this helps or if you have any further questions! 😊