php - Laravel not adhering to the set tablename in the Model specifically when using the ->create() function

Question

I'm using Laravel 8 to create an API and ran into a rather troubling problem.

When calling the create command Laravel can't find the right table and outputs an error.

IlluminateDatabaseQueryException: SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1146 Table 'homestead.user' doesn't exist (SQL: select count(*) as aggregate from `user` where `email` = [email protected]) in file /home/vagrant/code/feniks/vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Connection.php on line 678

The error output is correct, as the tablename is actually homestead.users. I've seen some questions posted about Laravel automatically adding an 's' to the end of a table when automatically looking for one, but as this seems to be the other way around, I couldn't find any solutions. The weird part is that every other command; update, show, index and destroy do find the right table. Some other question's answers gave the solution of setting the table name manually in the model like this:

protected $table = 'users';

However, this doesn't seem to change anything.

Here is the User Model that I use:

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use Notifiable, HasApiTokens, SoftDeletes, HasFactory;

protected $table = 'users';

/**
 * The attributes that are mass assignable.
 *
 * @var array
 */
protected $fillable = [
    'first_name', 'last_name', 'email', 'password',
];

/**
 * The attributes that should be hidden for arrays.
 *
 * @var array
 */
protected $hidden = [
    'password', 'remember_token',
];

/**
 * The attributes that should be cast to native types.
 *
 * @var array
 */
protected $casts = [
    'email_verified_at' => 'datetime',
];

/**
 * @return HasMany
 */
public function memberships() : hasMany
{
    return $this->hasMany(Membership::class, 'user_id');
}
}

As well as the controller method handling the API call:

public function store(): Response
{
    if (!$object = $this->model->create($this->inputStore()))
    {
        return ResponseBuilder::error(409);
    }

    return ResponseBuilder::success($object, 201);
}

Here is a working destroy() method to compare with:

public function destroy(): Response
{
    foreach (request()->except('membership') as $item)
    {
        if($object = $this->model->find($item))
        {
            $object->delete();
            $this->success[] = $object;
        }
        else
        {
            $this->failed[] = $item;
        }
    }

    if($this->failed)
    {
        return ResponseBuilder::error( 404,[],['failed' => $this->failed,'success' => $this->success]);
    }

    return ResponseBuilder::success($this->success, 200);
}

The inputStore() method is just a fancy way of validating data, but if it proves to be useful, here it is:

protected function inputStore($attributes = []): array
{
    if (!empty($attributes))
    {
        foreach ($attributes as $attribute => $value)
        {
            request()->merge([
                $attribute => $value
            ])->except('membership');
        }
    }

    return request()->validate([
        'email' => 'required|email|unique:user',
        'password' => 'required|max:255',
        'first_name' => 'string|max:255',
        'last_name' => 'string|max:255',
        'dob' => 'date',
        'phone' => 'string|max:255',
        'language' => 'string|max:8',
    ]);
}

Answer 1

Turns out there was an error that happened in the validate() function, where the "unique:user" parameter was supposed to be "unique:users".