Laravel nested eager load specific columns - php

Question

I am working with nested eager loading is there a way you can pick out certain columns from the middle relation in account.user.location ?
User Model
public function account(): HasMany
{
return $this->hasMany(Account::class);
}
public function location(): BelongsTo
{
return $this->belongsTo(Location::class);
}
Account model
public function user(): BelongsTo
{
return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}
Location model
public function user(): HasMany
{
return $this->hasMany(User::class);
}
Controller method that works
This method returns the nested relation but i want certain columns from the user relation instead of listing them all.
public function show(string $id)
{
$film = Film::with([
'account.user.location'
])->findOrFail($id);
}
Controller method that doesn't work
This is my sample code i've tried to pick out the name column from users then display the location relation.
public function show(string $id)
{
$film = Film::with([
'account.user:id,name',
'account.user.location:id',city
])->findOrFail($id);
}
Response
This is the response which is returned its returning the location as null from the not working method
+"account": {#2061
+"id": "191067a6-4c38-423d-a972-bb3a842ca89e"
+"user": {#2064
+"id": "d9f381c1-3899-367c-8d60-6d2bc3db6d23"
+"name": "Domenick"
+"location": null
Im unsure on how i pick out specific columns from the middle relation and then joining the location. Can i get some assistance on where i am going wrong?

Answer 1

Laravel is loading each level of relationships after another. In other words, if you use A::with('b.c')->get(), then Eloquent will first load all As, then all of their referenced Bs and finally all of the Cs referenced by the loaded Bs. The ORM uses navigation properties, i.e. foreign keys, to do so. If you omit these foreign keys on intermediate models, the framework is not able to load the referenced models anymore.
If you'd do it manually, you would use the following queries (used IDs and foreign keys are examples):
SELECT * FROM a; // returns As with ids 1, 2, 3
SELECT * FROM b WHERE a_id IN (1, 2, 3); // returns Bs with ids 4, 5, 6
SELECT * FROM c WHERE b_id IN (4, 5, 6);
In your case, it should be sufficient to use the following code:
public function show(string $id)
{
$film = Film::with([
'account.user:id,account_id,location_id,name',
'account.user.location:id,city'
])->findOrFail($id);
}

Answer 2

Update your User Model
public function account()
{
return $this->hasMany(Account::class, 'user_id');
}
public function location()
{
return $this->belongsTo(Location::class);
}
Update you Account class to
public function user()
{
return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'user_id');
}
In your controller method try this
public function show($id)
{
$film = Film::where('id', $id)
->with([
'account.user:id,name',
'account.user.location:id',city
])->get();
}