Create and Insert Many-to-Many Relationships in Laravel - php

Question

First of all, i'm a beginner and trying to learn all i can. So if i have mistakes please correct me.
So, i am working on a laravel project. I've got two models; drugs and interactions. What i am struggling is, I want to add two drugs and one interaction in one form. But also, i want to check if the drug has inserted already to avoid duplicate data.
Here are my models:
class Drug extends Model
{
//Table Name
protected $table = 'drugs';
//Primary Key
public $primaryKey = 'id';
//Timestamps
public $timestamps = true;
//relationship
public function interactions()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Interaction', 'drug_interaction', 'interaction_id', 'drug_id');
}
}
class Interaction extends Model
{
//Table Name
protected $table = 'interactions';
//Primary Key
public $primaryKey = 'id';
//Timestamps
public $timestamps = true;
//Relationship
public function drugs()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Drug', 'drug_interaction', 'drug_id', 'interaction_id');
}
}
And this is simply the store function in my DrugsController
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->validate($request, [
'name'=> 'required',
'info'=> 'nullable'
]);
//create drug
$drug = new Drug;
$drug->name = $request->input('name');
$drug->info = $request->input('info');
$drug->save();
return redirect('/drugs')->with('success', 'İlaç Eklendi');
}
And this is my InterationsController's store function.
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->validate($request, [
'name'=> 'required',
'description'=> 'required',
'category'=> 'nullable'
]);
//create interaction
$interaction = new Interaction;
$interaction->name = $request->input('name');
$interaction->description = $request->input('description');
$interaction->category = $request->input('category');
$interaction->save();
I can attach relationships via artisan tinker so i think relationship works. But i stuck when it comes to multiple input forms goes to different controllers. But using static id's. I need to make it variables. But two drugs should be attached to one interaction. So i couldn't succeed pasing two variables from form at the same time.
In dumb words, what i am trying to achieve is;
request drug_name_one from form's first textbox. Check db for that drug name, if exists; get its id. If it doesn't then create one and get id.
request drug_name_two from form's second textbox. Do the same as step one.
create an interaction as typed in form's third text box.
attach them.
PS: after this attach() work done, i also couldn't find a way to search for two drugs if they have a common interaction. If you can also mention a few tips to achieve that i'll be grateful.
All help and further reading advices appreciated. Thanks All !
Edit:
This is the create_interactions migration.
Schema::create('interactions', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->BigIncrements('id');
$table->string('name');
$table->string('description');
$table->string('category');
$table->timestamps();
});
}
This is the input for 'category' field:
<div class="form-group">
{{Form::label('category', 'Kategori')}}
{{Form::text('category', '', ['class' => 'form-control', 'placeholder' => 'Etkileşim Kategorisi'])}}
</div>
I couldn't make the structure of a form as i desired btw. It's just the form for creating interactions by itself without relationship.

Answer 1

Here is the solution. It is working well now.
First of all i was trying to assign 2 drugs to one interaction. So i've imported select2 and used this "select" form to list the drugs and chose multiple from them:
<div class="form-group">
{!! Form::label('İlaçları Seçin') !!}
{!! Form::select('drugs[]', $drugs, null, ['multiple' => 'multiple', 'class' => 'form-control drugs']) !!}
</div>
On the InteractionsController:
$interaction = new Interaction;
$interaction->name = $request->input('name');
$interaction->description = $request->input('description');
$interaction->category = $request->input('category');
$interaction->save();
$interaction->drugs()->sync($request->drugs, false);
But i also wanted to show and edit those drugs assigned to the specific interaction. So on the edit.blade.php form there is this script:
<script type="text/javascript">
$('.drugs').select2().val({!! json_encode($interaction->drugs()->allRelatedIds()) !!}).trigger('change');
</script>
This script, calls the related drugs to the selected interaction in the same form as i used in create.blade.