laravel eloquent relationship for indirectly related model - laravel

Question

I want a relationship where two unrelated models are linked together with a linker model.
My tables are like:
card table
id(pk)
name
User table
id(pk)
username
password
card_id(fk)
Feature table
id(pk)
name
card_id(fk)
How can i define an eloquent relationship to access all the features of user's card from user model like this:
class User extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
public function features(){
return $this->relatonship_statement;
}
}
and when I tried in Card Model:
class Card extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
public function features(){
return $this->hasMany(Feature::class);
}
}
and in User model:
class User extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
public function card(){
return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}
public function features(){
return $this->card->features;
}
}
I get error:
App\Models\User::features must return a relationship instance.

Answer 1

What you really want is an accessor function, not a relationship. This is how you would do to achieve what you want.
class User extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
protected $appends = ['features']; //to append features in the response json
public function card(){
return $this->belongsTo(Card::class); //editted User to Card
}
public function getFeatures(){ //accessor method
return $this->card->features()->get();
}
}
sample result after returning user in a controller function
return User::query()->with('card')->first();
However, the right way is to access the features through the Card Relationship because these two models have a direct relationship.