Laravel Categories - php

Question

I'm learning php with laravel and trying to implement categories and subcategories for multiple on my project.
For Example: I have Books, Mobiles in my project
Books has its own categories and subcategories. Same goes for Mobile.
I have added another table with relation
Schema::create('category_product', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->integer('product_id')->unsigned();
$table->integer('category_id')->unsigned();
$table->unique(array('product_id', 'category_id'));
// foreign key constraints are optional (but pretty useful, especially with cascade delete
$table->foreign('product_id')->references('id')->on('products')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->foreign('category_id')->references('id')->on('categories')->onDelete('cascade');
});
Category Database Schema
Schema::create('categories', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->integer('parent_id')->nullable()->index();
$table->string('title')->unique();
$table->string('slug')->unique();
$table->string('description')->nullable();
$table->string('keywords')->nullable();
$table->timestamps();
});
category.php (Model)
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Cviebrock\EloquentSluggable\Sluggable;
class Category extends Model
{
use Sluggable;
/**
* Return the sluggable configuration array for this model.
*
* #return array
*/
public function sluggable()
{
return [
'slug' => [
'source' => 'title'
]
];
}
/**
* The database table used by the model.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $table = 'categories';
/**
* Attributes that should be mass-assignable.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $fillable = [
'parent_id', 'title', 'description', 'slug'
];
public function parent()
{
return $this->belongsTo('Category', 'parent_id');
}
public function children()
{
return $this->hasMany('Category', 'parent_id');
}
public function categoryProduct(){
return $this->belongsToMany('CategoryProduct');
}
public function product(){
return $this->belongsToMany('Product');
}
}
Am i doing the right way as i didn't find a proper tutorial for this kind of approach. Do i need to create a CategoryProduct.php model and reference
public function categories(){
return $this->belongsToMany('Category');
}
public function products(){
return $this->belongsToMany('Product');
}

Answer 1

No, you don't need to create a model for a pivot table. Eloquent has many methods to make working with pivot tables a breeze. In your case you don't need a model.
But sometimes, when you're working with pivot table additional columns a lot it's a good idea to create a model for a pivot table.