Laravel Active Laravel Package

Getting Started

ibrand/laravel-active is a small Eloquent helper for adding an "active/inactive" state to models — scopes to filter active records and helper methods to toggle state without deleting rows.

Install and wire it up in three steps:

composer require ibrand/laravel-active

1. Add the boolean column. The package assumes an active (or is_active, depending on config) column on the table. Generate a migration:

Schema::table('products', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->boolean('active')->default(true)->index();
});

2. Use the trait on your model:

use Ibrand\Active\Traits\Active;

class Product extends Model
{
    use Active;
}

3. Start using the scopes. The first and most common use case is filtering listing pages so disabled records never leak into public queries:

Product::active()->get();    // only active rows
Product::inactive()->get();  // only disabled rows

Where to look first: open src/Traits/Active.php in vendor/ibrand/laravel-active before relying on it. Because the package is tiny (3 stars, 0 dependents), the source is the real documentation — confirm the exact column name, trait namespace, and method names (activate() / deactivate() / toggleActive()) rather than trusting assumptions from other packages.

Implementation Patterns

Soft "publish/unpublish" for catalogs and CMS entries. Use active instead of deleted_at when a record should be hidden but still editable:

$product->activate();
$product->deactivate();

This pairs naturally with a deleted_at soft delete: deactivation hides from storefronts, deletion removes from admin history.

Compose with other scopes. Keep the active filter as the first constraint on every public-facing query builder method:

public function scopePublished(Builder $q)
{
    return $q->active()->where('published_at', '<=', now());
}

Route model binding with an implicit constraint. Prevent direct URL access to inactive records:

Route::get('/products/{product}', fn (Product $product) => view('product', compact('product')))
    ->scopeBindings(); // or bind manually:
// Route::bind('product', fn ($id) => Product::active()->findOrFail($id));

Admin toggles. Wire a single endpoint for the common "switch on/off" toggle:

Route::patch('/products/{product}/toggle', function (Product $product) {
    $product->toggleActive();
    return back();
});

Mass toggling. For bulk admin actions, prefer a query update over per-model loops — the trait's methods trigger events/saves per instance, which is slow at scale:

Product::whereIn('id', $ids)->update(['active' => false]);

Cached counts. If you expose "X active listings" on a dashboard, cache the result and bust it on activate/deactivate via an observer — don't call Product::active()->count() on every request.

Gotchas and Tips

• It is unmaintained. Zero dependents and 3 stars mean no community fixes and no Laravel 11+ guarantee. Before adopting, run it against your target Laravel version in a scratch app; if it breaks, the trait is ~20 lines you can copy into app/Models/Concerns/Active.php and own outright. For most teams that is the honest recommendation.

• Column name mismatch is the #1 failure. The trait and its scopes hard-code the column it reads. If your schema uses is_active or status, either rename in a migration or override the constant/getActiveColumn() method the trait exposes. Check the source — don't guess.

• Mass assignment. Add active to $fillable (or $guarded) if you want form-driven toggles to persist; otherwise update(['active' => ...]) silently no-ops.

• Type casting. Cast the column to bool (protected $casts = ['active' => 'boolean']) so JSON responses and Blade conditionals behave predictably — MySQL returns 0/1, which will render as "1" in APIs otherwise.

• Index the column. Every scope call filters on active; without an index, Product::active()->where('category_id', $x) will table-scan once the catalog grows. Add a composite index covering your most common filter pair.

• Default values are your responsibility. The package does not backfill existing rows. When adding the column to a live table, set ->default(true) or run an update, or every existing record becomes invisible to active() queries.

• Debugging empty listings. When a page suddenly shows nothing, suspect the active() scope first: ->toSql() on the query to confirm the where active = 1 clause, and log Product::withoutGlobalScope(...) output if you use the trait alongside global scopes.

• Extension point: if you need richer states (draft/published/archived), don't fight the boolean — keep active for the boolean toggle and add a separate status enum. The trait is thin enough that wrapping it in a Publishable concern that also manages published_at is cleaner than patching the vendor code.