Laravel mismatching IDs - php

Question

My website currently has a weird bug that only shows itself on the live version, but not on my local setup.
Essentially, in this scenario, a user is trying to ask an artist (another type of user) for a quote, hence the requestQuote function.
public function requestQuote(Request $request, AppMailer $mailer) {
$reciUsername = $request->input('recipient');
$recipientID = User::where('username', $reciUsername)->value('id');
$recipient = User::where('username', $reciUsername)->first();
$active_commissions_count = Commission::where('artist_id', $recipientID)
->where('complete', 0)
->where('stripe_charge_id', '!=', "")
->where('stripe_charge_id', '!=', null)
->count();
$this->validate($request, [
'message' => 'required|max:5000|min:10',
]);
$message = Auth::user()->messages()->create([
'body' => $request->input('message'),
'subject' => 'Status: Commission requested!',
'recipient_id' => $recipientID,
'sender_read' => 1,
'is_quote' => 1,
'quote_expires' => Carbon\Carbon::now()->addWeeks(1),
]);
$from = Auth::user()->username;
$mailer->sendQuoteRequestEmailTo($recipient, $from);
Auth::user()->update([
'timeout' => Carbon\Carbon::now(),
]);
dd("Message ID: " . $message->id . " - Message User ID: " . $message->user_id);
return redirect()->back()->with('info', 'Quote sent.');
}
This creates a message which the artist can then read. In this scenario, the recipient_id user is the artist, and the user_id user is the one who made the original quote. This is not supposed to change at any point during this transaction.
You'll notice there's a diedump at the end there.
In this scenario, the dd returns
"QUOTE REQUEST - Message ID: 30 - Message User ID: 2 - Recipient ID: 21"
Great. Everything works well so far, and the correct message is sent through, with the correct user being shown as having sent the quote.
The problem happens when the artist replies to the quote.
public function quoteReply(Request $request, $messageId, AppMailer $mailer) {
$this->validate($request, [
"reply-{$messageId}" => 'max:5000',
"price" => 'required|min:10|max:9999|numeric',
"date" => 'required|date',
], [
'max' => 'The text body has a maximum of 5000 characters.',
'price.max' => 'Commissions have a maximum of 9999 US dollars.',
'price.min' => 'Commissions have a minimum of 10 US dollars.',
]);
$message = Message::notReply()->find($messageId);
if (!$message) {
return redirect()->route('home')->with('info', 'Something went wrong.');
}
$date = $request->input('date');
$date2 = DateTime::createFromFormat('m/d/Y', $date);
$date3 = $date2->format("Y-m-d");
$reply = message::create([
'body' => $request->input("reply-{$messageId}"),
'sender_read' => 3,
'reci_read' => 3,
])->user()->associate(Auth::user());
Message::where('id', $messageId)->update([
'updated_at' => Carbon\Carbon::now(),
'subject' => 'Status: Price quote delivered.',
'quoted' => 1,
'price' => $request->input('price'),
'estimated_date' => $date3,
'quote_expires' => Carbon\Carbon::now()->addWeeks(1),
]);
$userID = $message->value('user_id');
$recipientID = $message->value('recipient_id');
$user = User::where('id', $userID)->first();
if (Auth::user()->id == $userID) {
Message::where('id', $messageId)->update(['reci_read' => 0]);
}
if (Auth::user()->id == $recipientID) {
Message::where('id', $messageId)->update(['sender_read' => 0]);
}
$message->replies()->save($reply);
$from = Auth::user()->username;
$mailer->sendQuoteReplyEmailTo($user, $from);
dd("QUOTE REPLY - Message ID: " . $message->id . " - Message User ID: " . $message->user_id . " - Message Recipient ID: " . $message->recipient_id . " - User ID: " . $user->id );
return redirect()->back()->with('info', 'Price quote delivered.');
}
This will return:
"QUOTE REPLY - Message ID: 30 - Message User ID: 2 - Message Recipient
ID: 21 - User ID: 3"
I first noticed this problem when the wrong user was receiving email. In fact it's ALWAYS the same user getting the email. User 3. If I use a different user for the artist, and a different user for the person requesting the quote, $user always becomes user 3.
Despite this, the correct users are still getting correct messages. At the moment this is only affecting who's getting the correct email in the quoteReply function.
What could be causing this?

Answer 1

Switching
$userID = $message->value('user_id');
to
$userID = $message->user_id;
Fixed my problem.