Laravel Associate method is returning empty array

Question

I am working on a simple social network, i am working on the replies section now. I associated the post/status model with user as below, but when i tried to access in the view it returns empty array [].

Reply function in Post Model

public function postReply(Request $request, $statusId){
        $this->validate($request, [
            "reply-{$statusId}" => 'required|max:1000',
        ],
        [
            'required' => 'The reply body is required'
        ]
        );

        $post = Post::notReply()->find($statusId);
        if(!$post){
            return redirect('/');
        }

        if(!Auth::user()->isFriendsWith($post->user) && Auth::user()->id !== $post->user->id){
            return redirect('/');
        }

        $post = Post::create([
            'body' => $request->input("reply-{$statusId}"),
        ]);
        $post->user()->associate(Auth::user());
        $post->replies()->save($post);


        return redirect()->back();
    }

Post Model

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Post extends Model
{
    protected $table = 'posts';
    protected $fillable = ['body'];
    public function user(){
        return $this->belongsTo('App\User');
    }

    public function likes(){
        return $this->hasMany('App\Like');
    }

    public function scopeNotReply($query){
        return $query->whereNull('parent_id');
    }

    public function replies(){
        return $this->hasMany('App\Post', 'parent_id');
    }
}

Posts Table

View Where i am accessing the Replies via $post->replies

<section class="row new-post">
        <div class="col-md-6 col-md-offset-3">
            <header><h3>What do you have to say?</h3></header>
            <form action="{{ url('createpost') }}" method="post">
                <div class="form-group">
                    <textarea class="form-control" name="body" id="new-post" rows="5" placeholder="Your Post"></textarea>
                </div>
                <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Create Post</button>
                <input type="hidden" value="{{ Session::token() }}" name="_token">
            </form>
        </div>
    </section>
    <section class="row posts">
        <div class="col-md-6 col-md-offset-3">
            <header><h3>What other people say...</h3></header>
                @foreach($posts as $post)
                <article class="post media" data-postid="{{ $post->id }}">
                    <a class="pull-left" href="{{ url('user', $post->user->username) }}">
                        <img class="media-object" alt="" src="{{ $post->user->getAvatarUrl() }}">
                    </a>
                    <div class="media-body">
                      <h4 class="media-heading"><a href="{{ url('user', $post->user->username) }}"> {{ $post->user->username }}</a></h4>
                        <p>{{ $post->body }}</p>
                        <ul class="list-inline">
                            <li>{{ $post->created_at->diffForHumans() }}</li>
                            <li><a href="#">Like</a></li>
                            <li>10 likes</li>
                        </ul>
                        {{ $post->replies }}

                    </div>

                    <form role="form" action="{{ url('createpost',  $post->id )}}" method="post">
                            <div class="form-group{{ $errors->has("reply-{$post->id}") ? ' has-error': '' }}">
                                <textarea name="reply-{{ $post->id }}" class="form-control" rows="2" placeholder="Reply to this status"></textarea>
                                @if($errors->has("reply-{$post->id}"))
                                    <span class="help-block">{{ $errors->first("reply-{$post->id}") }} </span>
                                @endif
                            </div>
                            <input type="submit" value="Reply" class="btn btn-default btn-sm">
                            <input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ Session::token() }}">
                    </form>

                </article>

                @endforeach

        </div>

</section>

PS : I am using one table for the relationship i.e posts and in posts table there is a column name parent_id via which i am linking the relationship to the table with itself.

{{ $post->replies }} returns empty array. By logic it should return the replies of comment related to the replies .

If any thing else is needed, just mention i will share.

UPDATE : Note that the all the replies the user comment is stored in the database table posts with unique id i.e parent_id The only thing is that when i try to access it it returns empty array.

Answer 1

You are using $post for both the parent post and the reply, hence in

$post->replies()->save($post);

you are actually setting $post to be a reply to itself.

Would also be worth noting that column id is UNSIGNED but user_id and parent_id are not. I presume that there are foreign keys set on these?

Edit

Try this with a new $reply variable.

public function postReply(Request $request, $statusId){
    $this->validate($request, [
        "reply-{$statusId}" => 'required|max:1000',
    ],
    [
        'required' => 'The reply body is required'
    ]
    );

    $post = Post::notReply()->find($statusId);
    if(!$post){
        return redirect('/');
    }

    if(!Auth::user()->isFriendsWith($post->user) && Auth::user()->id !== $post->user->id){
        return redirect('/');
    }

    $reply = Post::create([
        'body' => $request->input("reply-{$statusId}"),
    ]);
    $reply->user()->associate(Auth::user());
    $post->replies()->save($reply);


    return redirect()->back();
}

Answer 2

You have setup your relations wrong. In your post model, instead of post having a self one-to-many relationship. It should be like this:

// App\User.php
public function replies()
{
    return $this->hasMany(App\Reply::class);
}

// App\Post.php
public function replies()
{
    return $this->hasMany(App\Reply::class);
}

// App\Reply.php
public function post()
{
    return $this->belongsTo(App\Post::class);
}

public function user()
{
    return $this->belongsTo(App\User::class);
}

public function comments()
{
    return $this->belongsTo(App\Reply::class, 'parent_id');
}

Answer 3

It seems like your are not attaching the replies to your $post variable while passing it to your view.
We have to use with() method to join these two tables.
Try, the following :

if(Auth::check()){ 
            $posts = Post::notReply()
                    ->where(function($query){ 
                        return $query->where('user_id', Auth::user()->id)
                                ->orWhereIn('user_id', Auth::user()->friends()->lists('id'));
                    })
                    ->with('replies')//Here we are joining the replies to the post
                    ->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')
                    ->get();
                    return view('timeline.index', compact('posts')); 
                }

Now, in your View you would need to use 2 foreach loop like below:

@foreach($posts as $post)
    {{--Your Code --}}
    @foreach($post->replies as $reply)
        {{--Your Code --}}
    @endforeach
    {{--Your Code --}}
@endforeach

Update:

Problem is with the postReply() method. In old code you were overriding the $post variable, due to which the reply was getting parent_id as its own id.
So, replace your old code with using $reply variable.
old:

$post= Post::create([
   'body' => $request->input("reply-{$statusId}"),
]);
$post->user()->associate(Auth::user());
$post->replies()->save($post);

new:

$reply = Post::create([
   'body' => $request->input("reply-{$statusId}"),
]);
$post->user()->associate(Auth::user());
$post->replies()->save($reply);