Context
I have 3 migrations:
Members table:
<?php
class CreateMembersTable extends Migration
{
public function up()
{
Schema::create('members', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('name')->unique();
$table->timestamps();
});
}
}
Member Link Types table:
<?php
class CreateMemberLinkTypesTable extends Migration
{
public function up()
{
Schema::create('member_link_types', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->string('name', 50)->primary()->unique();
$table->string('category', 50)->index();
$table->string('description', 50)->unique();
$table->string('description_on_male', 50);
$table->string('description_on_female', 50);
$table->string('reverse_link', 50);
});
Artisan::call('db:seed', [
'--class' => MemberLinkTypeSeeder::class
]);
Schema::table('member_link_types', function ($table) {
$table->foreign('reverse_link')->references('name')->on('member_link_types');
});
}
And, member links table:
<?php
class CreateMemberLinksTable extends Migration
{
public function up()
{
Schema::create('member_links', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('member_link_type', 50)->index();
$table->integer('from_member_id')->unsigned()->index();
$table->integer('to_member_id')->unsigned()->index();
$table->timestamps();
$table->foreign('member_link_type')->references('name')->on('member_link_types');
$table->foreign('from_member_id')->references('id')->on('members');
$table->foreign('to_member_id')->references('id')->on('members');
});
}
}
After seed member_link_types table, it look like this:
name | category | description | description_on_male| description_on_female| reverse_link |
-------|----------|-------------|--------------------|----------------------|--------------|
child | family | Child | son | daughter | parent |
parent | family | Parent | dad | mon | child |
sibling| family | Sibling | brother | sister | sibling |
spouse | family | Spouse | husband | wife | spouse |
So, I define the relationships at Member Link Class model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class MemberLink extends Model
{
protected $with = [
'from', 'to', 'type'
];
public function from()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\Member', 'from_member_id');
}
public function to()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\Member', 'to_member_id');
}
public function type()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\MemberLinkType', 'member_link_type', 'name');
}
}
The problem
Given that I have the table 'member_links' like this:
| id | member_link_type | from_member_id | to_member_id |
|----|------------------|----------------|--------------|
| 1 | parent | 1 | 2 |
When I load the model
$link = MemberLink::find(1)
I got this:
App\MemberLink {#3012
id: 1,
member_link_type: "parent",
from_member_id: 1,
to_member_id: 2,
from: App\Member {#3024
id: 1,
name: "Micaela Beltrão",
},
to: App\Member {#3022
id: 2,
name: "Ian Fernandes",
},
type: null,
}
That is, the to and from properties were loaded successfully, but the type relationship did not (null).
However, if I try to get to the relationship directly from the object I get a different result:
$link = MemberLink::find(1);
$link->belongsTo('App\MemberLinkType', 'member_link_type', 'name')->get()
Giving this:
=> Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection {#3013
all: [
App\MemberLinkType {#3032
name: "parent",
category: "family",
description: "Parent",
description_on_male: "dad",
description_on_female: "mom",
reverse_link: "child",
},
],
}
How get type relationship to be loaded?
I'm using Laravel 5.6.
Update 1
Following Aarón Gutiérrez sugestion I add a Surrogate Key (integer column) as Key of member_link_types table, And after making the necessary changes:
$link = MemberLink::find(1)
=> App\MemberLink {#3019
id: 1,
member_link_types_id: 1,
from_member_id: 11,
to_member_id: 12,
created_at: "2018-08-14 14:28:46",
updated_at: "2018-08-14 14:28:46",
from: App\Member {#3031
id: 11,
name: "Simon Ferminiano",
created_at: "2018-08-14 14:24:49",
updated_at: "2018-08-14 14:24:49",
},
to: App\Member {#3029
id: 12,
name: "Luciano Leon",
created_at: "2018-08-14 14:24:52",
updated_at: "2018-08-14 14:24:52",
},
type: App\MemberLinkType {#3030
id: 1,
name: "parent",
category: "family",
description: "Parent",
description_on_male: "dad",
description_on_female: "mom",
reverse_link: 2,
},
So, I suppose there is some limitation when I use the text field as the table's primary key, would it?
