You can add a nullable status column to users table and update it only if the user role is agent ?
By the way, I am using https://github.com/spatie/laravel-permission for roles, it's simple and easy to use.
Be part of JetBrains PHPverse 2026 on June 9 – a free online event bringing PHP devs worldwide together.
Edited original post to be more concise and clear.
Hi Everyone,
I'm relatively new and have a few questions regarding a personal learning project I'm working on. Thank you in advance for any feedback!
CONTEXT:
My project is using the default laravel 7.x UI and auth scaffolding. (I'v already implemented roles with a roles table and role_user table.
Many users can have many roles:
Users with the Role of Agent can have one status at any given time; either 'AVAILABLE' or 'BUSY'.
QUESTIONS:
#1. How should I define the Agent User/Status relationship? Initially I did Many to Many. I created a statuses table and status_user table. Later I concluded that this was incorrect and changed the relationship to Many to One as seen below. ( I didn't change any of my tables)
IN THE USER MODEL:
public function statuses(){
return $this->belongsTo('App\Status');
}
IN THE STATUS MODEL:
public function users(){
return $this->belongsToMany('App\User');
}
#2. After having trouble with some queries I'm starting to think using the two tables (statuses and status_user) is in incorrect given how I modeled them above.
-Should I rollback just add a "status" column directly to the user table? or did I get the entire relationship wrong? -Maybe I shouldn't be relating status to the users table; instead to a separate 'Agents' table?
You can add a nullable status column to users table and update it only if the user role is agent ?
By the way, I am using https://github.com/spatie/laravel-permission for roles, it's simple and easy to use.
Please or to participate in this conversation.