Model Relationship - best practise to sort

@gecko2811 you have three options to define the ordering:

Option 1. Callback Function with orderBy

// Controller:
Map::with(['routesExternal.runs' => function($query) {
    $query->orderBy('runs.saves', 'desc');
}])->get();

Option 2. Model: ALWAYS Order By Field X

Maybe you want that relationship to always be ordered by that field?

You can do this:

app/Models/RouteExternal.php:

public function runs() 
{
    return $this->hasMany(Run::class, "way_id", "id")->orderBy('saves', 'desc');
}

Then, in the Controller, you just leave it as it was.

Option 3. Separate Ordered Relationship

If you want to use this ordering often but not always, another option is to create a separate relation function:

app/Models/RouteExternal.php:

public function runs() 
{
    return $this->hasMany(Run::class, "way_id", "id");
}

public function runsOrderedBySaves() 
{
    return $this->hasMany(Run::class, "way_id", "id")->orderBy('saves', 'desc');

    // Or alternatively, even...
    return $this->runs()->orderBy('saves', 'desc');            
}

// Controller:
Map::with('routesExternal', 'routesExternal.runsOrderedBySaves')->get();

I've quickly created a post on my blog, as a reference to answer similar questions in the future.

Let me know if it works, and which way you've chosen :)

This will sort the runs from each route. I need some way to get ALL runs from ALL routes by ONE map in one array and order these by "saves".

$routes = Map::with('routesExternal', 'routesExternal.runs')
->where('ID_usermaps', $mapName)
->limit(50)
->first();

$runs = array();

foreach($routes->routesExternal as $route) {
    $runs = array_merge($runs, $route->runs->toArray());
}

This would work. Does not seem like the best practise but the result is correct. I don't have a direct relationship from map to runs.