Models are returned in the JSON format as they are represented in the database. Often, model attributes, which are Boolean in nature, are represented by 0 and 1 for true and false, respectively. It may be, in this case, more convenient to return a real true and false to the RESTful call's return object.

In Laravel 4, this was done using accessors. If the value was $status, the method would be defined as follows:

public function getStatusAttribute($value){
    //do conversion;
}

In Laravel 5, this process is much easier, thanks to a new feature called model casting. To apply this technique, simply add a protected key and a value array called $casts to the model as follows:

class Room extends Model
{
    protected $casts = ['room_number'=>'integer','status'=>'boolean'];
    public function accommodation(){
        return $this->belongsTo('MyCompanyAccommodation'),
    }
}

In this example, room_number is a string, but we want to return an integer. Status is a tiny integer, but we want to return a Boolean value. Casting these two values in the model will modify the resultant JSON in the following manner:

{"id":1,
"room_number": "101",
"status": 1,
"created_at":"2015-03-14 09:25:59",
"updated_at":"2015-03-14 19:03:03",
"deleted_at":null,
"accommodation_id":2}

The preceding code will now change as follows:

{"id":1,
"room_number": 101,
"status": true,
"created_at":"2015-03-14 09:25:59",
"updated_at":"2015-03-14 19:03:03",
"deleted_at":null,
"accommodation_id":2}