Decoding JSON array laravel - arrays

Question

Hello i am having slight trouble with arrays in my application. I have a table in my database called "contacts" inside that table i have a column "info" of datatype 'TEXT' where i store a json encoded array. This is my function:
/**
* Store a newly created resource in storage.
*
* #return Response
*/
public function store(Request $request)
{
$contact = new Contacts;
$contact->type = $request->type;
$contact->name = str_replace(' ', ' ', $request->type == 'person' ? $request->first_name . ' ' . $request->other_name . ' ' . $request->last_name : $request->description);
$contact->email = $request->email;
$contact->info = json_encode($request->info);
if ($contact->save())
{
return [
'success' => 'Data was saved successfully!'
];
}
}
Now this saves perfectly however the issues is when i retrieving the data from the database it returns that column as a "string" and as such i am unable to access that array from my front-end javascript (i use angular).
I have tried decoding the entire returned result but that did not work, still had the same problem:
/**
* Display a listing of the resource.
*
* #return Response
*/
public function index()
{
$type = Input::get('type');
$contacts = "";
if (empty($type))
{
$contacts = Contacts::get();
}
elseif ($type == 'persons')
{
$contacts = Contacts::where('type', 'person')->get();
}
elseif ($type == 'companies')
{
$contacts = Contacts::where('type', 'company')->get();
}
return [
'contacts' => json_decode($contacts)
];
}

Answer 1

Use the $casts property on your model:
class Contacts extends Eloquent
{
protected $casts = ['inof' => 'json'];
}
It'll handle all encoding/decoding for you.
$contact->info = $request->info;