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chrisgrim's avatar

Is there a way to see what Laravel is expecting for the magic behind the scenes?

I have two models, Event and Interactive Level. Event belongs to Interactive Level and Interactive Level can have many events. In my migration I have

 Schema::create('interactive_levels', function (Blueprint $table)

so in my event model I created

$table->foreignId('interactive_level_id')->nullable();

I assumed this would connect the two in the back end with Laravel's magic but it doesn't work. If I do

dd($event->interactivelevel);

nothing happens. However if I add my own foreign key like so

    public function interactivelevel() 
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(InteractiveLevel::class, 'interactive_level_id');
    }

it works. Is there a way for me to see what Laravel is looking for as a foreign key?? Sorta like Route:list but for foreign keys.

0 likes
14 replies
jlrdw's avatar

laravel API is a great place to search.

chrisgrim's avatar

hmmm this is helpful but still a little beyond me.

Cronix's avatar

FYI laravel debugbar shows all of your queries run on a page. A great development tool. It's the very first thing I always install right after laravel itself. It shows a great deal more info than just queries, too.

chrisgrim's avatar

@cronix

I do have debugbar but when I look at it without adding my own foreign key I see...

select * from `interactive_levels` where `interactive_levels`.`id` is null order by `rank` desc limit 1

then when I add the foreign key back

 return $this->belongsTo(InteractiveLevel::class, 'interactive_level_id');

and look back at my debug bar I see

select * from `interactive_levels` where `interactive_levels`.`id` = 1 order by `rank` desc limit 1

How do I tell what I am naming incorrectly?

Cronix's avatar
Cronix
Best Answer
Level 67

I don't understand what you're asking by "naming things correctly." Doesn't the debug bar show the same query as it does when enabling query logging?

I assumed this would connect the two in the back end with Laravel's magic but it doesn't work.

The magic comes in when you manually add the foreign key relationship like you did, which instructs laravel about it. There isn't anything that I'm aware of that will tell you that unless you supply it yourself. If tables are related to each other, there should be a relationship defined.

One thing you can do that will help is to utilize Laravel Eloquent Model Conventions: https://laravel.com/docs/7.x/eloquent#eloquent-model-conventions

You shouldn't need to tell it that interactive_level_id is the foreign key. It can figure that part out if the classnames and everything else follow the naming conventions.

chrisgrim's avatar

Ok! I figured it out. Eloquent determines the default foreign key name by examining the name of the relationship method and suffixing the method name with _id. So when I was naming my relationship

public function interactivelevel() 

Laravel was then looking for interactivelevel_id! So all I did was change my relationship to

public function interactive_level() 

and it worked!

chrisgrim's avatar

@jlrdw Im sorry I wasn't more clear. Sometimes it is almost as hard to write the question as to understand what is going wrong!!

Cronix's avatar

You shouldn't need to tell it that interactive_level_id is the foreign key. It can figure that part out if the classnames and everything else follow the naming conventions.

Ok! I figured it out. Eloquent determines the default foreign key name by examining the name of the relationship method and suffixing the method name with _id. So when I was naming my relationship

Yes, which is why I linked to the relevant portion of the user manual. I'm glad you "figured it out" :)

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