What are Eloquent model events, and how do Observers organize business logic?

Short answer

Events such as creating, created, updating, and deleted fire during a record's lifecycle; an Observer groups listeners for these events in a dedicated class.

Explanation

Eloquent events can run automatic actions, such as generating a UUID or sending a notification when a record is created, or prevent deletion by returning false from the deleting event. An Observer groups these methods in a clean class and is attached to the model with the #[ObservedBy([UserObserver::class])] Attribute in modern Laravel.

Code example

class UserObserver {
    public function creating(User $user): void {
        $user->uuid = (string) Str::uuid();
    }
}

Common mistakes

• Calling $model->save() inside an Observer's updating or saved event without care, causing an Infinite Loop.

Follow-up questions

• How do Soft Deletes work in Laravel, and how do they affect database indexes?

Sources

• Laravel docs — Eloquent: Observers