Laravel: Getting data from my pivot table - php

Question

I've just started using Laravel and I am really enjoying it. I am a little confused about how to access data at times and i'm not sure if I am going around this in the right way, Maybe somebody can help?
I want to simply output the Club Name and Opponent Club Name in a loop of Fixtures.
I have the following tables:
// a clubs table
Schema::create('clubs', function($table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('name', 20);
$table->string('code', 40);
$table->string('location', 20);
$table->string('colour', 20);
$table->string('alias', 20);
$table->string('image', 200);
$table->timestamps();
});
// a fixtures table
Schema::create('fixtures', function($table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('type', 20)->nullable();
$table->string('date', 20)->nullable();
$table->string('time', 20)->nullable();
$table->string('venue', 20)->nullable();
$table->string('address', 20)->nullable();
$table->boolean('reminders')->nullable();
$table->timestamps();
});
// a pivot table
Schema::create('clubs_fixtures', function($table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->integer('club_id')->unsigned(); // this is meant to be used as a foreign key
$table->foreign('club_id')->references('id')->on('clubs')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->integer('opponent_id')->unsigned(); // this is meant to be used as a foreign key
$table->foreign('opponent_id')->references('id')->on('clubs')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->integer('fixture_id')->unsigned(); // this is meant to be used as a foreign key
$table->foreign('fixture_id')->references('id')->on('fixtures')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->timestamps();
});
So a CLUB can have MANY FIXTURES and a FIXTURE can have MANY CLUBS.
My Club model is as follows:
use Illuminate\Auth\UserInterface;
use Illuminate\Auth\Reminders\RemindableInterface;
class Club extends Eloquent implements UserInterface, RemindableInterface {
protected $table = 'clubs';
public function getAuthIdentifier() {
return $this->getKey();
}
public function getAuthPassword() {
return $this->password;
}
public function getRememberToken() {
return $this->remember_token;
}
public function setRememberToken($value) {
$this->remember_token = $value;
}
public function getRememberTokenName() {
return 'remember_token';
}
public function getReminderEmail() {
return $this->email;
}
// set validation
public static $createUpdateRules = array(
'name'=>'required|min:2',
'location'=>'required|min:2',
'colour'=>'required|min:2',
'alias'=>'required|min:2'
);
// We can define a many-to-many relation using the belongsToMany method:
public function fixtures() {
return $this->belongsToMany('Fixture', 'clubs_fixtures')->withPivot('opponent_id');
}
}
My Fixture model is as follows:
use Illuminate\Auth\UserInterface;
use Illuminate\Auth\Reminders\RemindableInterface;
class Fixture extends Eloquent implements UserInterface, RemindableInterface {
protected $table = 'fixtures';
public function getAuthIdentifier() {
return $this->getKey();
}
public function getAuthPassword() {
return $this->password;
}
public function getRememberToken() {
return $this->remember_token;
}
public function setRememberToken($value) {
$this->remember_token = $value;
}
public function getRememberTokenName() {
return 'remember_token';
}
public function getReminderEmail() {
return $this->email;
}
// set validation
public static $createRules = array(
'type'=>'required|min:2',
'opponent'=>'required|min:1',
'date'=>'required|min:2',
'time'=>'required|min:2',
'venue'=>'required|min:2',
'address'=>'required|min:2',
'reminders'=>'required'
);
}
Then in my controller I use Elequent ORM to get the upcoming fixtures
public function getViewClub($id) {
$upcomingFixtures = Club::find($id)->fixtures()->where('date', '>=', new DateTime('today'))->get();
return View::make('club.view')->with('upcomingFixtures', $upcomingFixtures);
}
#foreach($upcomingFixtures as $upcomingFixture)
<p>
<a href="{{ URL::to('dashboard/'.$club->id.'/fixtures/upcoming/'.$upcomingFixture->id) }}">
<strong>{{ $club->name }} vs Team Name</strong>
</a>
</p>
#endforeach
I hope I make sense with all this. I've tried to separate out the data, trying to keep the clean modular and dry, but I've immediately hit a problem here.
Hopefully a Laravel guru can steer me in the right direction here?
Thanks

Answer 1

You're doing it wrong, first you don't need to implement UserInterface and RemindableInterface (but keep it in User model ), second you can add relation clubs() inside your Fixture model
class Fixture extends Eloquent {
protected $table = 'fixtures'; // you can also remove this line
// set validation
public static $createRules = array(
'type'=>'required|min:2',
//....
);
public function clubs() {
return $this->belongsToMany('Club','clubs_fixtures')
->withPivot('opponent_id');
}
}
Then in your controller
public function getViewClub($id) {
$upcomingFixtures = Fixture::with('clubs')
->where('date', '>=', new DateTime('today'))->get();
return View::make('club.view',compact('upcomingFixtures'));
}
#foreach($upcomingFixtures as $upcomingFixture)
<h1>{{ $upcomingFixture->type }}</h1>
#foreach($upcomingFixture->clubs as $club)
<p>
<a href="{{ URL::to('dashboard/'.$club->id.'/fixtures/upcoming/'.$upcomingFixture->id) }}">
<strong>{{ $club->name }} vs Team Name</strong>
</a>
</p>
<p> access to pivot table: {{ $club->pivot->opponent_id }}</p>
#endforeach
#endforeach