Multiple belongsTo Eloquent - php

Question

I have 3 models objects, namely: Categories, Category_products & Products
Categories:
<?php
class Categories extends Model
{
protected $table = 'categories';
public function product_ids() {
return $this->hasMany("app\Models\categories\Category_products", "category_id", "id");
}
?>
Category_products:
<?php
class Category_products extends Model
{
protected $table = 'category_products';
public function product_ids(){
return $this->belongsTo('app\Models\categories\Category');
}
public function products(){
return $this->hasOne("app\Models\Product", "id", "product_id");
}
}
?>
And Product:
<?php
class Product extends Model {
protected $table = 'products';
public function product(){
return $this->belongsTo("app\Models\categories\Category_products");
}
?>
Now in my CategoryController I do:
$this->data["products"] = Categories::find($id)->product_ids()->products()->get();
But now I get an error :
Call to undefined method Illuminate\Database\Query\Builder::products()
How can I do this the right way ?

Answer 1

OK, I'm going to try.
I guess you missed something when reading the Laravel documentation.
You don't have to create the category_products Models because it's your pivot table between your Categories and your Product.
"Normally", you should have something like this :
Products :
. id
. name
Categories :
. id
. name
category_product (alphabetically ordered name)
. product_id
. category_id
And your Models:
class Category extends \Eloquent {
public function products()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('namespace\to\your\model\Product');
}
}
class Product extends \Eloquent {
public function categories()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('namespace\to\your\model\Category');
}
}
Then you can do the following :
$this->data["products"] = Category::find($id)->products;
or
$this->data["products"] = Category::find($id)->products()->get();
Laravel will take care to call the pivot table for you.
It's not common to name your class with a plural, get used to name your class with their singular
And see also : http://laravel.com/docs/5.0/eloquent#many-to-many