Get eloquent model from DB including sub models - php

Question

I'm learning PHP and the Laravel framework and i'm getting stuck on loading some data from the database.
I have 2 models, Game and Player
Player model (curently empty):
class Player extends Model
{
}
Game model:
class Game extends Model
{
public $Players = [];
public function __construct(array $players = [])
{
$this->Players = $players;
}
public function SaveGame()
{
if($this->save()) {
Log::info("New game created with id " . $this->id);
}
foreach ($this->Players as $key => $player){
if ($this->Players()->save($player)){
Log::info("player added to game with id " . $player->id);
}
}
}
static function GetGame($gameId)
{
Return Game::find($gameId);
}
public function Players()
{
return $this->hasMany(Player::class );
}
}
And i have a GameController:
class GameController extends Controller
{
public function create()
{
$players = [];
for ($i = 1; $i <= 3; $i++) {
$player = new Player();
array_push($players,$player);
}
$game = new Game($players);
$game->SaveGame();
return $game;
}
public function LoadGame($id)
{
$game = Game::GetGame($id);
return $game;
}
}
If i call the create() method of my GameController, it creates a game in my Game table and 3 players in the player table with the gameID of the corresponding game so i think the relation works fine.
But if i check the response of the create() method i get only this:
{
"updated_at": "2018-03-01 15:13:37",
"created_at": "2018-03-01 15:13:37",
"id": 3952
}
Also the LoadGame() function returns just the game. Actually i need the game with all its players inside. Something like this:
{
"updated_at": "2018-03-01 15:13:37",
"created_at": "2018-03-01 15:13:37",
"id": 3952,
"players":[
{"name":"player1"},
{"name":"player2"},
{"name":"player3"},
],
}
What i'am doing wrong?/How do i get the wished result?
I'm also not sure if the Models are the right place to do the database actions and the controllers are the place to create the objects like i do in the posted code. If my "code structure" is not the best practice, some advice in this is also welcome!

Answer 1

To return the relationship you can use:
protected $appends = ['Players']
But to be honest, I think you may want to re-review the Laravel relationships docs to see how to do some of these things properly. Doing a bit of rewriting would make your life a bit easier in the future.
A couple notes for you:
Remove the GetGame method as it's arbitrary. By the time you've already pulled in the class App\Game you will be able to run the find method on it. You can just go: App\Game::find($id)
Remove the public $Players, as well as the construct, as these are unnecessary and breaks the relationship. Laravel makes it so that when you've created a relationship you can access it as if it's a variable within that class. Example: $game->players. You can kind of ignore the fact that the relationship is created as a method.
After doing those two things above, you can modify the protected $appends; variable and view your relationship when displaying the model.

Answer 2

Its so easy!, i found the solution by simply experimenting arround as i could not find a solution on the internet.
In the Game model I removed the
constructor (create own constructor in Laravel seems to be not recommended)
SaveGame() (save my game in the controller now)
GetGame() (useless, can use Game::find(x) in controller)
In the GameController i changed my create() function a bit. This is the result:
public function create()
{
$game = new Game(); // creates a new game
$game->Save(); // saves the new game into the db
for ($i = 1; $i <= 3; $i++) {
$player = new Player(); // creates a new player
$game->Players()->Save($player); // stores the player to the game in the db
}
}
I also changed my LoadGame() method in my GameController to
public function LoadGame($id)
{
$game = Game::find($id); // Instead of doing this in a own method in my model
$game->players // adds the players to the game object for some reason
return $game; // returns the game (as json) incl. all its players
}
This results in a json string what contains the game vars including a player array with its players. I dont understand why this is working but it is.
The weird thing is if i exchange $game->players for $game->Players() or $game->Players (like the has many method in the model) it does not work. Maybe someone can explain me why this is? (as i cant find any clarifying documentation to this)