Laravel - Eloquent attach() not working for models - php

Question

TL;DR
Trying to get three models to interact using eloquent for a rest api.
User - belongsToMany(pulls)
Pull - belongsToMany(user) && belongsToMany(boxes)
Box - belongsToMany(pulls)
The pull_user table is working perfectly, I can just attach a user after I save a pull. Saving a box works fine but the attach doesn't work/enter anything into the pivot table (I get no errors though).
The Problem
I can't get a pivot table that associates two of my models together to attach() after a save. I have the three models listed above, the pivot is working for pull_user but not for pull_box even though the save for box is working perfectly. I am able to save a box without an error but the association just never occurs (no error).
The Code
pull_box.php
class PullBox extends Migration
{
public function up()
{
Schema::create('pull_box', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->timestamps();
$table->integer('pull_id');
$table->integer('box_id');
});
}
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('pull_box');
}
}
Pull.php
class Pull extends Model
{
protected $fillable = ['from', 'to', 'runit_id', 'start_time', 'end_time', 'box_count', 'pull_status', 'audit_status', 'status', 'total_quantity', 'accuracy'];
public function users(){
return $this->belongsToMany('App\User');
}
public function boxes(){
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Box');
}
}
Box.php
class Box extends Model
{
protected $fillable = ['user_id','from', 'to', 'runit_id', 'start_time', 'end_time', 'pull_id', 'total_quantity', 'status', 'accuracy'];
public function pulls(){
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Pull');
}
}
BoxController.php
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->validate($request, [
'user_id' => 'required|integer',
...
]);
$user_id = $request->input('user_id');
...
$box = new Box([
'user_id' => $user_id,
...
]);
$pull = Pull::whereId($pull_id)->first();
if($box->save()){
$pull->boxes()->attach($box->id);
$box->view_box = [
'href' => 'api/v1/box/' . $box->id,
'method' => 'GET'
];
$message = [
'msg' => 'Box created',
'box' => $box,
'pull' => $pull_id
];
return response()->json($message, 201);
}
$response = [
'msg' => 'Box creation error, contact supervisor',
];
return response()->json($response, 404);
}
The Solution
I need to know how I can get this association working. I am going to need to add a new layer in under the pull for Item, but I don't want to move one before I solve this. I think that my problem has to stem from a syntactical/logical error on my part but I can't see it. There are a bunch of questions on SO that are very close to giving me a solution, but after reading them I wasn't able to solve my problem.
Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Try renaming your pull_box table to box_pull, pivot tables on laravel must be in alphabetical order. If you want to use custom name on pivot table you have to extends your pivot, for example:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\Pivot;
class PullBox extends Pivot
{
protected $table = 'pull_box';
}
And your many to many relationships:
class Pull extends Model
{
protected $fillable = ['from', 'to', 'runit_id', 'start_time', 'end_time', 'box_count', 'pull_status', 'audit_status', 'status', 'total_quantity', 'accuracy'];
public function users(){
return $this->belongsToMany('App\User');
}
public function boxes(){
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Box')->using('App\PullBox');
}
}
class Box extends Model
{
protected $fillable = ['user_id','from', 'to', 'runit_id', 'start_time', 'end_time', 'pull_id', 'total_quantity', 'status', 'accuracy'];
public function pulls(){
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Pull')->using('App\PullBox');
}
}