Laravel Table relationships (how to)

table.php

Based on: http://forums.laravel.com/viewtopic.php?id=2650

Question:

Hi friends,

I have just started with laravel (beautiful product) and have a question about table relationships.

I have three tables (projects / articles / images)

Image data for both projects and articles is stored in the images table e.g.
id, filename, content_id, content_type, ... (2133, asdfgh.jpg, 234, project, ...)

The images table has a one-to-many relationship with 2 tables. Therefore how do i represent the relationship in the model?

Vinay

Answer:

<?php
// models/project.php
class Project extends Eloquent {
  public function images()
  {
    return $this->has_many('Image', 'content_id')->where_content_type('project');
  }
}
// models/article.php
class Article extends Eloquent {
  public function images()
  {
    return $this->has_many('Image', 'content_id')->where_content_type('article');
  }
}
// models/image.php
class Image extends Eloquent {
  public function parent_content()
  {
    return $this->belongs_to($this->content_type, 'content_id');
  }
}
Then you can get the images as you usually except if you eager-load them you have to constrain the eager load too.

// regular
$article = Article::find($id)->first();
$images = $article->images;
// eager load
$user = Auth::user();
$articles = Article::with(array(
  'images' => function($query)
  {
    $query->where_content_type('article');
  },
))->where_user_id($user->id)->get();

// Usage

// Controller

$articles = Article::with(array('authors', 'cities'))->where('created_at', '>', $whatever)->order_by('created_at', 'desc')->paginate( 25 );

//View

@foreach( $articles as $article )
   {{ $article->name }} by {{ $article->author->name }} from {{ $article->city->name }}
@endforeach
?>