Laravel how to get back relationships from an array of ids - php

Question

I have a table called addresses, it has a column name user_ids which is an array of the users who have that same address.
When I request to /api/addresses what it returns is {id:1,name:"lorem", user_ids:[1,2]}. I want it to return the users instead of their ids
this is the addresses model
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Address extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
protected $fillable = [
'coordinates',
'title',
'description',
'user_ids',
];
protected $appends = ['user_ids'];
protected $casts = [
'user_ids' => 'array',
];
public function users()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(User::class,"addresses");
}
}
this is the create_table_addresses
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
return new class extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::create('addresses', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string('coordinates');
$table->string('title');
$table->string('description');
$table->json("user_ids");
$table->timestamps();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('addresses');
}
};
addresses controller
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use App\Http\Requests\StoreAddressRequest;
use App\Http\Requests\UpdateAddressRequest;
use App\Models\Address;
class AddressController extends Controller
{
/**
* Display a listing of the resource.
*
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function index()
{
return Address::with('users')->get();
}
/**
* Show the form for creating a new resource.
*
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function create()
{
//
}
/**
* Store a newly created resource in storage.
*
* #param \App\Http\Requests\StoreAddressRequest $request
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function store(StoreAddressRequest $request)
{
$address = Address::create($request->validated());
return response()->json($address, 201);
}
/**
* Display the specified resource.
*
* #param \App\Models\Address $address
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function show(Address $address)
{
return $address;
}
/**
* Show the form for editing the specified resource.
*
* #param \App\Models\Address $address
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function edit(Address $address)
{
//
}
/**
* Update the specified resource in storage.
*
* #param \App\Http\Requests\UpdateAddressRequest $request
* #param \App\Models\Address $address
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function update(UpdateAddressRequest $request, Address $address)
{
$address->update($request->validated());
return response()->json($address, 200);
}
/**
* Remove the specified resource from storage.
*
* #param \App\Models\Address $address
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function destroy(Address $address)
{
$address->delete();
return response()->json(null, 204);
}
}

Answer 1

My suggestion would be to use the database for this (since you're already using the with('addresses')).
(Documentation for that relationship starts here)
Migration:
Schema::create('address_user', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->integer('user_id')->unsigned()->index();
$table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->integer('address_id')->unsigned()->index();
$table->foreign('address_id')->references('id')->on('addresses')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->primary(['user_id', 'address_id']);
});
User model:
use App\Models\User;
class Address extends Model {
public function users() {
return $this->belongsToMany(User::class);
}
}
Address model:
use App\Models\Address;
class User extends Model {
public function addresses() {
return $this->belongsToMany(Address::class);
}
}
Now you can use the relationship your application:
$address->users // Get all the users with that address
$user->addresses // Get all the addresses for the user
Address::with('users') // Get addresses with the users as an attribute
User::with('addresses') // Get users with the Address as an attribute

Answer 2

I am assuming that the response comes from a controller so then where you build you response, you need to append the user information.
Maybe something like
User::whereIn('id', [1,2])->get() ...
If you post the controller, then I can tell you exactly where to put this or how to do it better.