Laravel getting class on view without passing from controller - php

Question

I have a pivot table post_profile that contains the hearts (likes) of each post.
Post.php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Post extends Model
{
protected $guarded = [];
public function user()
{
return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}
public function profilesHearted()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(Profile::class);
}
}
Profile.php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Profile extends Model
{
protected $guarded = [];
public function profileImage()
{
$imagePath = ($this->image) ? $this->image : 'profile/czyhBQu2YWX6gvBivZrnEs2ORoBwr3d9mzkwxk8k.png';
return $imagePath;
}
public function followers()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(User::class);
}
public function heartedPosts()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(Post::class);
}
public function user()
{
return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}
}
The main view which shows all posts of followed users is working along with the heart button but underneath I want to show liked by <x> and 30 others, where x is first follower of the user if any of the user's follower hearted the post. I tried many ways to get x but I am a bit lost.
This is PostsController.php index function which leads to the view:
public function index()
{
$users = auth()->user()->following()->pluck('profiles.user_id');
$posts = Post::whereIn('user_id', $users)->with('user')->latest()->paginate(5);
return view('posts.index', compact('posts', 'users' ));
}
What I tried to do but deleted eventually after failing is get each post in foreach loop and check if each $post->heartedProfiles(contains($users)), but this doesn't work this way. So another way I tried is in my view ie, index.blade.php
#foreach($users as $userid)
User::select('id')->where('profile_id', $userid)->first()
->profile->profilesHearted->find($post->id)
#endforeach
Which doesn't work because User class cannot be used directly in view without passing.
I'm sure there is a simple and cleaner way to do this in Laravel. This is my first time using Laravel and ORM programming so really felt lost. Took the FreeCodeCamp Instagram clone tutorial and understood the basics. All I need is to give me some idea to get started.

Answer 1

When dealing with many to many you need to use the pivot functions, so you would do like so
Post::profilesHearted()->wherePivotIn('profile_id', $users)->first()
Not checked the code but hopefully it will give you the idea.