CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phplaravellaravel-5.6
user538578964
user538578964

Reputation: 773

Laravel 5.6 Eloquent Relationship not returning value

This is a section of Two of my related models in Laravel

class Employee extends Authenticatable
{
    use Notifiable;

    protected $primaryKey = 'employee_id';
    public $incrementing = false;

    public function branch(){
        return $this->belongsTo('App\Branch');
    }

    public function orders(){
        return $this->hasMany('App\Order');
    }
}

class Branch extends Model
{

    protected $primaryKey = 'branch_id';
    public $incrementing = false;

    public function employees(){
        return $this->hasMany('App\Employee');
    }
}

And these are the migrations of the above two models (up function only)

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('branches', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->string('branch_id')->unique();
        $table->timestamps();
        $table->primary('branch_id');
    });
}


public function up()
{
    Schema::create('employees', function (Blueprint $table) {     
        $table->string('employee_id')->unique();
        $table->string('name');
        $table->string('password');
        $table->string('job');
        $table->string('branch_id');
        $table->foreign('branch_id')->references('branch_id')->on('branches')->onDelete('cascade');          
        $table->rememberToken();
        $table->timestamps();
        $table->primary('employee_id');
    });
}

When I run php artisan tinker and test out the relationship, I get the following output:

 >>> namespace App
 >>> $emp = new Employee()
 => App\Employee {#778}
 >>> $emp = $emp->find('CMB-EMP-001')
 => App\Employee {#787
     employee_id: "CMB-EMP-001",
     name: "FirstName LastName",
     job: "Root",
     branch_id: "CMB",
     created_at: "2018-04-11 17:24:53",
     updated_at: "2018-04-11 17:24:53",
   }
 >>> $emp->branch()->get()
 => Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection {#775
     all: [],
    }

As you can see, it returns an empty array instead of the branch id of the employee. What have I done wrong?

EDIT:

>>> $emp->branch
 => null

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1447

Answers (3)

Anthony
Anthony

Reputation: 21

To build on Jonas's point, and to provide more clarity for future viewers:

The actual signature for defining a belongsTo relationship is

belongsTo(relatedEntity, foreignKey, ownerKey, relationModel)

At present, in your use of belongsTo, you're only defining which related entity you are defining a relationship with. What you need to do is provide details of the owner key (rather than the foreign key), so in your case:

return $this->belongsTo('App\Branch', 'branch_id', 'branch_id');

Why is this the case?

Laravel's default behaviour for determining which column to utilise is:

  1. For the foreign key, take the related entity name and add the _id suffix. I.e. branch_id
  2. For the owner key, default to using "id", since Laravel's convention is that a model's primary key should be called "id".

Given that in your migrations you've modified Laravel's default approach, by naming your primary key "branch_id" rather than just "id", you need to tell Laravel how to relate the two models.

Upvotes: 0

Sohel0415
Sohel0415

Reputation: 9853

Change your belongsTo() relationship

public function branch(){
    return $this->belongsTo('App\Branch', 'branch_id', 'branch_id');
}

Upvotes: 0

Jonas Staudenmeir
Jonas Staudenmeir

Reputation: 25906

You have to specify the foreign key:

class Employee extends Authenticatable
{
    public function branch(){
        return $this->belongsTo('App\Branch', 'branch_id');
    }
}

And use $emp->branch instead of $emp->branch()->get().

Upvotes: 2

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