How use with() when also joining a table - php

Question

I have the following tables (with only relevant fields):
devices
id
name
created_at
updated_at
device_reports
id
device_id
location
created_at
updated_at
I have a report with a number of filters on it that is already working, so I want to stick with the eloquent way of doing things. Here is Controller function:
public function devices(Request $request)
{
$devicesQuery = Device::with(['latestReport']);
if ($request->ajax())
{
if($request->input('start') && $request->input('start')!='')
{
$start_date = date('Y-m-d', strtotime($request->input('start')));
$end_date = date('Y-m-d', strtotime($request->input('end')));
$devicesQuery = $devicesQuery->lastReportBetween($start_date,$end_date);
}
$devices = $devicesQuery->paginate(10);
return Response::json(View::make('devices/table', array('devices' => $devices))->render());
}
}
The model's latestReport is defined as:
public function latestReport()
{
return $this->hasOne('App\Models\DeviceReport')->latest();
}
The model's function lastReportBetween is defined as:
public function scopeLastReportBetween($query, $start, $end)
{
$query = $query->join('device_reports AS dr', 'dr.device_id', '=', 'devices.id');
$query = $query->where('dr.id', '=', DB::raw('(SELECT max(dr2.id) FROM device_reports AS dr2 WHERE dr2.device_id = devices.id)'));
$query = $query->where(DB::raw("(IFNULL(dr.gps_time, dr.created_at))"), '>=', DB::raw("STR_TO_DATE('".$start."', '%Y-%m-%d')"));
$query = $query->where(DB::raw("(IFNULL(dr.gps_time, dr.created_at))"), '<=', DB::raw("STR_TO_DATE('".$end."', '%Y-%m-%d')"));
return $query;
}
When running the above with a start/end date selected, I get the correct records returned, but I don't get anything returned in "latestReport", but when I run the page without the date filters in place, it correctly returns the device information and the most recent report record in the latestReport class variable.
Can anyone help me understand how to change this code such that I do get the latestReport back when I also call the lastReportBetween function?

Answer 1

I figured out my problem. I should have been using "whereHas()" instead of manual joins and whatnot.
public function scopeLastReportBetween($query, $start, $end)
{
return $query->whereHas('latestReport', function($reportsQuery) use ($start, $end)
{
$reportsQuery->whereBetween('created_at', [$start, $end])
->where('device_reports.id', '=', DB::raw('(SELECT max(dr2.id) FROM device_reports AS dr2 WHERE dr2.device_id = device_reports.device_id)'));
});
}