Laravel - Unnecessary columns still being loaded with select statement - php

Question

I am wanting to limit a controller's function's result to only pass certain columns into the view.
It is necessary because it will be used within an API, and so I need the results to be as streamlined as possible.
I have done this successfully with the following function:
public function getIndex()
{
$alerts = Criteria::select('id', 'user_id', 'coordinate_id', 'alert_name')
->with(['coordinate' => function($q){
$q->select('name', 'id');
}])
->get();
}
So it only returns id, user_id and coordinate_id from the criteria table.
However on the function below, I am using a has query (to access a relationship), and thus, using with afterwards to limit the columns, but it's still returning all:
public function getMatches()
{
$matches = Criteria::select('id')
->has('alerts')
->with(['alerts' => function ($q){
$q->select('id', 'headline', 'price_value', 'price_type');
}])
->with('alerts.user.companies')
->get();
}
But, for example, it's still returning the description column, which is in the alert's table. The with query proceeding the has query clearly isn't working (but it's presenting no errors).
Also, the ->with('alerts.user.companies') query, is returning everything within the user's table, which is also unnecessary. How can I return just the companies table data, that's related to the user, who's related to the alert?
Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Depending what you want to achieve, you could use $hidden property to hide columns you don't want to return as json or arrays.
In your Alert model you could do:
protected $hidden = ['description'];
And this way description field won't be returned.
If it's not the way for you (sometimes you want to return description) you could create extra relationships where you limit fields from database.
You could for example create the following relationship:
public function alertsSimple() {
return $this->hasMany('Alert')->select('id', 'headline', 'price_value', 'price_type', 'criteria_id');
}
Also maybe in your select the problem is that you don't use foreign key at all. You could also try with:
$q->select('id', 'headline', 'price_value', 'price_type','criteria_id');
instead of
$q->select('id', 'headline', 'price_value', 'price_type');