How to specify Books and Authors relationship in Eloquent insertion? - php

Question

I was figuring out how to insert a hasMany entry using Laravel 4
Author.php module
class Author extends Eloquent\LaravelBook\Ardent\Ardent
{
public static $rules = array(
'title' => 'required',
'last_name' => 'required',
'first_name' => 'required',
);
/**
* The database table used by the model.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $table = 'authors';
public function abstraction()
{
return $this->belongsTo('Book','book_id');
}
/**
* Get the unique identifier for the user.
*
* #return mixed
*/
public function getRegId()
{
return $this->getKey();
}
}
Book.php Module
class Book extends Eloquent\LaravelBook\Ardent\Ardent
{
public static $rules = array(
'title' => 'required',
'authors' => 'required',
);
/**
* The database table used by the model.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $table = 'abstracts';
public function author()
{
return $this->hasMany('Author');
}
/**
* Get the unique identifier for the user.
*
* #return mixed
*/
public function getRegId()
{
return $this->getKey();
}
}
My controller
$r = new Book();
$r->title = Input::get('title');
$r->authors = Input::get('authors');
$r->affiliation = Input::get('affiliation');
$r->keywords = Input::get('keywords');
$r->summary = Input::get('summary');
$r->save();
$authors = new Author();
$authors_array = array(
array('name' => 'Arun1', 'affiliation' => 'aff_arun'),
array('name' => 'Arun2', 'affiliation' => 'aff_arun'),
array('name' => 'Arun3', 'affiliation' => 'aff_arun3'),
array('name' => 'Arun4', 'affiliation' => 'aff_arun'),
);
$authors->book()->associate($r);
$authors->save($authors_array);
I'm getting one null record on authors table which pointed to the book and other 3 record that I inserted here without any pointing to the book.

Answer 1

First off I believe this is wrong schema, since probably one author could write more than a single book.
So I suggest you define many-to-many (belongsToMany) relation for this instead.
Anyway here is solution to your problem:
// I wonder why you call the book $r ?
$r = new Book;
...
$r->save();
$authors_array = array(...);
foreach ($authors_array as $author)
{
$r->author()->save(new Author($author));
// you need $fillable/$guarded on Author model or it will throw MassAssignementException
}
Another suggestion: rename the relation to authors so it is meaningful and you won't catch yourself trying to treat it like a single model (while it always returns the Collection)