While developing a small administrative tool to help the company make data changes to 800 different databases, I had little time to come up with a liable solution on how to make master/tenant connections with Laravel. When you Google multi tenancy with Laravel, about 3 packages stand out. by hyn/multi-tenant Luceos I had played a little with , which is undeniably a great package, but it didn’t have compatibility with Laravel 5.4 (did I mention I had little time?). It made me afraid of having to constantly deal with outdated packages and I didn’t want that burden on me. hyn orchestral/tenanti At the time, orchestral was overly complicated for me. Laravel beginners, specially when you don’t have other framework experience, might take some time understanding Service Providers, boot, etc. I was unable to fully comprehend the solution for single database and multi database. Landlord Single database solution. Not what I needed. Doing it yourself Laravel makes it quite easy to just do it yourself. All you need is a connection configuration, a middleware, a trait connector and set your models accordingly. Connection Settings in your file, let’s set 2 connections. Note that I erase the connection, so you need your to say config/database.php mysql .env DB_CONNECTION=main 'connections' => [ 'main' => \[ 'driver' => 'mysql', 'host' => env('DB\_HOST', '127.0.0.1'), 'port' => env('DB\_PORT', '3306'), 'database' => env('DB\_DATABASE', 'forge'), 'username' => env('DB\_USERNAME', 'forge'), 'password' => env('DB\_PASSWORD', ''), 'charset' => 'utf8mb4', 'collation' => 'utf8mb4\_unicode\_ci', 'prefix' => '', 'strict' => **true**, 'engine' => **null**, \], 'tenant' => \[ 'driver' => 'mysql', 'host' => env('DB\_HOST', '127.0.0.1'), 'port' => env('DB\_PORT', '3306'), 'database' => '', 'username' => '', 'password' => '', 'charset' => 'utf8mb4', 'collation' => 'utf8mb4\_unicode\_ci', 'prefix' => '', 'strict' => **true**, 'engine' => **null**, \] ] The Middleware Always assure the connection exists. All you have to do is make sure all the routes that should connect to the database uses this middleware. In my particular situation, the user would select a customer (tenant) from a list and would manipulate that customer’s data, hence the use for session. But I could easily have 2 middlewares (WebTenant, ApiTenant) and rely on tokens to pick a tenant connection as well. tenant <?php App\Http\Middleware; namespace App\Models\Main\Company; App\Support\Controller\TenantConnector; Closure; use use use Tenant { class **use** TenantConnector; _/\*\* \*_ **_@var_** _Company \*/_ **protected** $company; _/\*\* \* Tenant constructor. \*_ **_@param_** _Company $company \*/_ **public function** \_\_construct(Company $company) { $this->company = $company; } _/\*\* \* Handle an incoming request. \* \*_ **_@param_** _\\Illuminate\\Http\\Request $request \*_ **_@param_** _\\Closure $next \*_ **_@return_** _mixed \*/_ **public function** handle($request, Closure $next) { **if** (($request->session()->get('tenant')) === **null**) **return** redirect()->route('home')->withErrors(\['error' => \_\_('Please select a customer/tenant before making this request.')\]); // Get the company object with the id stored in session $company = $this->company->find($request->session()->get('tenant')); // Connect and place the $company object in the view $this->reconnect($company); $request->session()->put('company', $company); **return** $next($request); } } TenantConnector (The Trait) Not much to talk about here. Just have your tenant data connection be set. **<?php namespace** App\Support; App\Models\Main\Company; Illuminate\Support\Facades\Config; Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB; Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema; use use use use TenantConnector { trait reconnect(Company $company) {// Erase the tenant connection, thus making Laravel get the default values all over again.DB:: ('tenant'); /*** Switch the Tenant connection to a different company.* @param Company $company* @return void* @throws */ public function purge // Make sure to use the database name we want to establish a connection. Config::_set_('database.connections.tenant.host', $company->mysql\_host); Config::_set_('database.connections.tenant.database', $company->mysql\_database); Config::_set_('database.connections.tenant.username', $company->mysql\_username); Config::_set_('database.connections.tenant.password', $company->mysql\_password); // Rearrange the connection data DB::_reconnect_('tenant'); // Ping the database. This will throw an exception in case the database does not exists or the connection fails Schema::_connection_('tenant')->getConnection()->reconnect(); } } The Models A model in the main database will have the connection and that’s it. main **<?php namespace** App\Models\Main; Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable; Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User Authenticatable; use use as Admin Authenticatable { class extends Notifiable; use $connection = 'main';} protected The Company (customer/tenant) model was just slightly different. I decided to use the TenantConnector trait here as well and provide a method. This allows me to do things like connect() Company::find($id)->connect(); **<?php namespace** App\Models\Main; App\Support\TenantConnector; Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model; use use _string company_name*/_ Company Model { /*** @property string mysql_host* @property string mysql_database* @property string mysql_username* @property string mysql_password* @property class extends **use** TenantConnector; **protected** $connection = 'main'; _/\*\* \*_ **_@return_** _$this \*/_ **public function** connect() { $this->reconnect($this); **return** $this; } } The tenant model will just connect to the database settings. tenant **<?php namespace** App\Models\Tenant; Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model; use MailQueue Model { class extends $connection = 'tenant'; protected } The last thing would be a to allow you to set the session that the middleware expects. SelectTenantController _\Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse|\Illuminate\Routing\Redirector*/_ select(Request $request, $company) {$this->reconnect($this->company->findOrFail($company)); $request->session()->put('tenant', $company); redirect('/');} /*** @GET * @param Request $request* @param $company* @return public function return Conclusion Laravel will make it easy for you to have 2 connection settings. Routes that will connect to a specific database can easily have a middleware to make sure the connection exists. You can easily pick the connection for each model (or have a MainModel / TenantModel and extend them). Everything is set and you got yourself a Laravel application able to connect to multiple databases. I should soon write a follow-up for automation testing with tenants and token-based routes with tenants.
