Laravel model getting instances of the class -

i developing package in workbench environment. have model like

<?php namespace vendor\webshop\models;  use vendor\webshop\models\country country; use illuminate\database\eloquent\model eloquent;  /**  * catalog  */ class catalog extends eloquent {      // define database     protected $table = 'catalogs';      // mass assignment restriction     protected $guarded = array('id');      // return countries related catalog     public function countries() {         return $this->belongstomany('vendor\webshop\models\country');     }      /**      * returns whether enforce compability check or not      */     public function getforcecompabilitytest() {         return $this->force_compability_check;     }  }  ?> 

i wondered if can have custom instance getters like

public function getdefaultcatalogs() {   return catalog::where('is_default_catalog', '=', true)->get(); }} 

within class itself. possible or methods available concrete instance, can call them catalog::getdefaultcatalogs() outside of class?

laravel's eloquent support kind of behaviour - it's call "query scopes" http://laravel.com/docs/eloquent#query-scopes

in model, this:

class catalog extends eloquent {      public function scopedefault($query)     {         return $query->where('is_default_catalog', '=', true);     }  } 

then, can retrieve record call

$defaultcatalog = catalog::default()->get();  // or order them, if there more 1 default catalog. , on... $defaultcatalog = catalog::default()->orderby('created_at')->get();