Laravel 6 - can't access attribute in Pivot class - php

Question

I have :
A many_to_many relationship between a Group Model and a User Model;
A Group_User Pivot class (I need it to observe its events);
An additional field named status in my group_user table;
An observer that observes Group_User model.
The setup is as follows
class Group extends Model
{
/* Other stuff */
protected $table = 'groups';
public function users()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\User')
->using(GroupUser::class)
->withPivot(['status', 'is_confirmed'])
->withTimestamps();
}
/* Other stuff */
}
And
class GroupUser extends Pivot
{
protected $table = 'group_user';
}
In a controller, I have a $group->users()->attach($user); (hence creating a new GroupUser object and dispatching the created event).
In my observer, I have the following piece of code:
public function saved(GroupUser $groupUser)
{
// Here, I wanted to access $groupUser->status that leads to an error
dd($groupUser);
}
I expected my $groupUser to have the status attribute as, not only is it in the database, I also specified it in my users() function (just to be sure).
EDIT: here, I meant that when I dd($groupUser->status); it returns null
How can I access this field ?
Some remarks :
I already used in my code $user->pivot->status and it works as expected !
I tried few solutions like explicitly adding status to $attributes or $fillable protected variables of my GroupUser class but that had no effect.
When I dd my $group_user, I get:
//...
#attributes: array:4 [
"user_id" => 1
"group_id" => 1
"created_at" => "2020-10-12 21:07:53"
"updated_at" => "2020-10-12 21:07:53"
]
#original: array:4 [
"user_id" => 1
"group_id" => 1
"created_at" => "2020-10-12 21:07:53"
"updated_at" => "2020-10-12 21:07:53"
]
//...
Finally, I thought of a hack but I don't quite like it as it seems like a lot of work for such a simple task. I wanted to maybe, add a getStatusAttribute function to my model that would return $this->PivotParent->users()->/*try to make some condition to find the correct user*/->pivot->status;
Any ideas ?
EDIT 2: when I pass the extra argument to attach it works but I want to use the database default value for the field
EDIT 3: I found this thread and it made me think that what I want to do is impossible :( I think my attach used to work correctly because (and on only because) my SGBD would set the default value for a field that wasn't specified !

Answer 1

I created your example in my test environment and I had no problem with the Pivot class not returning the data on the saved observer. Perhaps you have to set the guarded at your pivot class?
protected $guarded = []; //accepts all fields to be filled
Here are my files
Group.php
class Group extends Model
{
protected $guarded = [];
public function users()
{
return $this
->belongsToMany(User::class)
->using(GroupUser::class)
->withPivot(['status', 'is_verified'])
->withTimestamps();
}
}
GroupUser.php
class GroupUser extends Pivot
{
protected $guarded = [];
public static function boot()
{
parent::boot();
static::saved(function (GroupUser $groupUser) {
dd($groupUser->toArray());
});
}
}
And my Unit Test
class GroupTest extends TestCase
{
use RefreshDatabase;
/** #test */
public function it_belongs_to_many_users()
{
$this->withoutExceptionHandling();
$user = factory(User::class)->create();
$group = factory(Group::class)->create();
$group
->users()
->attach($user, ['is_verified' => 1, 'status' => 1]);
//data will be dumped here by GroupUser::class saved() observer
}
}
here is My Test Output
array:6 [
"user_id" => 1
"group_id" => 1
"created_at" => "2020-10-12T20:56:20.000000Z"
"updated_at" => "2020-10-12T20:56:20.000000Z"
"is_verified" => 1
"status" => 1
]
I hope that might help you.

Answer 2

OK I found an answer. It's a bit annoying but it works !
WARNING: there is an important remark at the end (edit)
I needed to use withPivotValue (link to the doc, original pull and original proposal) instead of withPivot change my Group->users() so my code now is
class Group extends Model
{
/* Other stuff */
protected $table = 'groups';
public function users()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\User')
->using(GroupUser::class)
->withPivotValue(['status' => MY_DEFAULT_VALUE, 'is_confirmed' => MY_OTHER_DEFAULT_VALUE])
->withTimestamps();
}
/* Other stuff */
}
Now that's weird as the doc says :
Set a where clause for a pivot table column.
In addition, new pivot records will receive this value.
What's annoying me is that I have to define the default value in two different places, the migration AND the Model. It would be nice if I had a way to synchronize them.
EDIT 1 : DON'T USE withPivotValue in an existing function or it will break your code ! now my $group->users() returns only users with the status set to the default value so i had to define it in another function called newUsers and keep users as it was
class Group extends Model
{
public function users()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\User')
->using(GroupUser::class)
->withPivot(['status', 'is_confirmed'])
->withTimestamps();
}
public function newUsers()
{
return $this->users()
->withPivotValue('status', DEFAULT_STATUS);
}
}