laravel 4 many to many relationship integration test not passing - php

Question

Every entity is being saved and has an ai id. Only the test on line 34 is not passing.
<?php
class AssignmentTest extends TestCase
{
protected $assignment;
public function setUp()
{
parent::setUp();
$this->assignment = new Assignment;
}
public function testAssignmentAssociations()
{
$facility = Facility::create(array(
'name' => 'test facility',
'code' => 'test-facility'
));
$user = new User;
$user->id = 1;
$shift = Shift::create(array(
'name' => 'test shift',
'start_time' => 0,
'end_time' => 600
));
$this->assignment->facilities()->save($facility);
$this->assignment->shift()->associate($shift);
$this->assignment->user()->associate($user);
$this->assignment->save();
$this->assertEquals(1, $facility->id);
$this->assertEquals(1, $this->assignment->facilities()->count());
$this->assertEquals(1, $this->assignment->shift_id);
$this->assertEquals(1, $this->assignment->user_id);
}
}
// Facility model
public function assignments()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('Assignment', 'assignment_facilities');
}
// Assignment model
public function facilities()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('Facility', 'assignment_facilities');
}
Edit
Apparently removing this line will make the test successful. Now I'm interested as to why when saving the assignment the association will no longer return a successful count?
<?php
$this->assignment->save();

Answer 1

I havent tested - but dont you need to 'save' the shift and user records themselves, before you try and associate them against the assignment?
$user = new User;
$user->id = 1;
$shift = Shift::create(array(
'name' => 'test shift',
'start_time' => 0,
'end_time' => 600
));
$shift->id = 1;
$this->assignment->facilities()->save($facility);
$this->assignment->shift()->save($shift);
$this->assignment->user()->save($user);
$this->assignment->shift()->associate($shift);
$this->assignment->user()->associate($user);
$this->assignment->save();