Data not Saving into pivot table using Laravel Api Resource - php

Question

please I am new to Laravel, I want to use Laravel API Resource to store database inside database.
I have 3 Tables
Users
Category
Category_User (this is a pivot table)
In my Controller (OnboardsControllers), I have this to store data
public function store(Request $request)
{
$category_user = Category_User::firstOrCreate(
[
'user_id' => $request->user()->id,
'category_id' => $request->$category->id,
],
);
return new CategoryUserResource($category_user);
}
In my CategoryUserResource I have this
public function toArray($request)
{
return [
'user_id' => $this->user_id,
'category_id' => $this->category_id,
'created_at' => (string) $this->created_at,
'updated_at' => (string) $this->updated_at,
];
In my Pivot Table, I have this
public function up()
{
Schema::create('category_user', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->bigIncrements('id');
$table->integer('category_id')->unsigned();
$table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();
$table->timestamps();
});
}
In my model, I added this
protected $fillable = [
'user_id', 'category_id',
];
In my route/api
Route::post('/category_user', 'OnboardsController#onboardupdate');
I believe the error is here
'user_id' => $request->user()->id,
When I removed it, it didn't returned any error
When I tried to save to my database using Postman to test, it not saving. Please, I don't know what I am doing wrong.
Thanks

Answer 1

To be honest, you do not need a model Category_User (but you need a table).
In Laravel a more concise approach is used:
public function store(Request $request)
{
$user = User::find($request->input('user_id'));
$user->categories()->attach($request->input('category_id'));
}
Also I'm not sure if you have declared a method categories() in model User:
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class User extends Model
{
public function categories()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(Category::class);
}
}
I also strongly doubt the existence of method user() of class Request.
If the request parameter has a name category_id, then you need to access it like this:
$request->input('category_id');