Correct way to set up this Laravel relationship? - php

Question

I'm after a bit of logic advice. I am creating a system where users login and register their participation at an activity. They can participate at an activity many times. What is the best way to do this? I want to ensure I can use eloquent with this rather than creating my own functions.
I am imagining...
Users:
id
Activitys:
id
name
Participations:
id
user_id
activity_id
time_at_activity
I want to later be able to do such things as:
$user->participations->where('activity_id', 3)
for example.
What is the best way to set this up? I had in mind..
User: hasMany->Participations
Activity: belongsTo->Participation
Participation: hasMany->Activitys & belongsTo->User
Does this look correct?

Answer 1

The users schema can relate to activities through a pivot table called participations:
/**
* Indicate that the model belongs to a user.
*
* #see \App\Model\User
*
* #return BelongsTo
*/
public function user()
{
return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}
/**
* Indicate that the model belongs to many activity participations.
*
* #see \App\Model\Activity
*
* #return BelongsTo
*/
public function participations()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(Activity::class, 'participations');
}
$user->participations()->attach($activity);
You may want to add the reciprocal relationships. These can be separated out into traits for code reuse. ->attach(['participated_at' => now()])

Answer 2

You can use Many-to-Many Relationship.
Use Participation as your pivot table. Define relationships as
/* in User */
public function activity()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Models\Activitys','participation','user_id','activity_id')->as('participation')->withPivot('time_at_activity');
}
/* in Activity */
public function user()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Models\Users','participation','activity_id','user_id')->as('participation')->withPivot('time_at_activity');
}

Answer 3

DB schema
// App\User
public function participations()
{
return $this->hasMany('App\Participation');
}
// You may create App\Participation Model
// App\Participation
public function user()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\User');
}
// Controller
$userParticipations = $user->participations->where('activity_id', 3);
// eager loading version
$userWithParticipations = $user->with(['participations' => function($q) { $q->where('activity_id', 3) }])->get();