Laravel: Error trying to get unique users to create posts - php

Question

Right so im trying to make a website where a registered user can create a post. The issue i am having rigt now is getting the post to be added to the the database. It should work but im getting an error.
The error:
Call to a member function posts() on null
The error points to my post controller class
<?php
use App\Post;
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
class postController extends Controller
{
public function postCreatePost(Request $request){
$post = new Post();
$post->body = $request['body'];
$request->user()->posts($post); //points here
return redirect()->route('dashboard');
}
}
This is my post migration up method:
public function up()
{
Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->timestamps();
$table->text('body');
$table->integer('user_id');
});
}
Post model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Post extends Model
{
public function user(){
return $this->belongsTo['App\User'];
}
}
User model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\Authenticatable;
class User extends Model implements Authenticatable
{
use \Illuminate\Auth\Authenticatable;
public function posts(){
return $this->hasMany('App\Post');
}
}
The section the user types in:
<section class="row new-post">
<div class="col-md-6 col-md-offset-3">
<form action="{{ route('postcreate') }}" method="post">
<div class="form-group">
<textarea class="form-control" name="body" rows="5" placeholder="your post"></textarea>
</div>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Create post</button>
<input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ csrf_token() }}">
</form>
</div>
</section>

Answer 1

The problem is that on your controller you do:
$request->user()->posts($post); //points here
You are considering that user() will always return something.
If your route isn't guarded by the auth middleware, $request->user() may return null if there's no authenticated user.
So you have two options: Or you add the auth middleware, or you put an if on your code:
if ($request->user()) {
$request->user()->posts($post);
}
However, this will fix the error but it won't create a post
public function postCreatePost(Request $request){
$post = new Post();
$post->body = $request['body'];
$request->user()->posts($post); // This call isn't valid.
return redirect()->route('dashboard');
}
The right way to do is:
public function postCreatePost(Request $request){
$request->user()->posts()->create([
'body' => $request->body
// Here I'm assumming that the only field is the `body`,
// but you may need other fields if they exists.
// the `user_id` field will be automatically filled.
];
return redirect()->route('dashboard');
}