Laravel 5 route binding variables not accessible in query builder - php

Question

I'm using route binding to determine if each part of the URL is related to the previous. I'm trying to access the route parameter/variable ($stage_number) in my query builder but no luck. To confuse things, if I substitute the variable with a hard value it works, e.g. 4
How do I use the $stage_number variable in my query?
/*
* Route
*/
Route::get('/application/{application_id}/stage/{stage_number}', [
'as' => 'application.stage',
'uses' => 'ApplicationController#stage'
]);
/*
* Route Service Provider
*/
// Application
$router->bind('application_id', function($application_id)
{
$application = Application::find($application_id);
if (! $application)
{
abort(404);
}
return $application;
});
// Stage
$router->bind('stage_number', function($stage_number)
{
$application = $this->getCurrentRoute()->application_id;
$stage = collect($application->stages)->where('order', $stage_number)->all();
if (! $stage)
{
abort(404);
}
return $stage;
});
Update in response to patricus:
Thanks for the information about calling where() on collections; I did not realise it handled differently to the query builder. Updating my where() for the collection works perfectly - thanks. However, I am still having trouble when using the query builder:
// Route with data
/application/1/stage/4
// Actual data returned
array:4 [▼
0 => array:2 [▼
"name" => "Information about the University or Education Course"
"order" => 3
]
1 => array:2 [▼
"name" => "Information about your education to date"
"order" => 4
]
2 => array:2 [▼
"name" => "Other Information"
"order" => 5
]
3 => array:2 [▼
"name" => "Declaration"
"order" => 6
]
]
// Desired data to be returned
array:1 [▼
0 => array:2 [▼
"name" => "Information about your education to date"
"order" => 4
]
]
Regardless of what order I specify in my route I seem to get everything returned that is not null unless I choose 1 or 2 (which are rows with no order number and excluded from the array example above) and then I get that row returned with all of the other rows that is not null (as shown in the example above) but any other null rows are excluded. Is this a problem caused by the relationship on my Application object?
public function stages()
{
return $this->hasMany('App\Entities\Application\Stage', 'type_id')->orWhereNull('type_id')->orderBy('order', 'asc');
}
Update:
Setting the foreign_key and local_key on my relationship seemed to resolve the other issues:
public function stages()
{
return $this->hasMany('App\Entities\Application\Stage', 'type_id', 'type_id')->orWhereNull('type_id')->orderBy('order', 'asc');
}

Answer 1

You're actually calling the where() method on a Collection object, not on a Builder object.
The where() method on the Collection works a little differently. First, it can only do an equals comparison. Second, by default, it does a strict equals (===) comparison, and this is your issue. Since your $stage_number is a string, and your order field is most likely an integer, the strict comparison doesn't return any results.
You can change the comparison to a loose equals (==) by passing false as the third parameter. You can also use the whereLoose() method, which does the same thing.
Also note, assuming that stages is a hasMany or belongsToMany relationship on the Application object, there is no need for the call to collect(). $application->stages will already return a Collection.
// pass false as third parameter
$stage = $application->stages->where('order', $stage_number, false)->all();
// or use whereLoose
$stage = $application->stages->whereLoose('order', $stage_number)->all();
Now, having said all that, you probably want to be calling where() on the query builder. While $application->stages will give a Collection of related stage objects, $application->stages() returns the Relation object for the relationship, which gives you access to the query builder. Since you have access to the builder, you can add your where clause to the query being run and will provide a performance boost (and also doesn't care about variable type).
$stage = $application->stages()->where('order', $stage_number)->get();
Note that get() will return a Collection object that contains the matching stage objects. If order is unique and you want to get that one stage object, you can use first() instead of get():
$stage = $application->stages()->where('order', $stage_number)->first();