How to query for the messages between the exact recipients? - laravel

Question

Is there a similar "whereIn" for "whereInBetween" in Laravel 7+? I have a basic chat app:
Message model
id, content, userId, threadId
threadId is filled when a user replies to a message. Think "parentId".
public function sentBy(): BelongsTo
{
return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'userId');
}
public function recipients(): HasMany
{
return $this->hasMany(MessageRecipient::class);
}
Recipients model
id, userId, messageId
public function user(): BelongsTo
{
return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'userId');
}
public function message(): BelongsTo
{
return $this->belongsTo(Message::class, 'messageId');
}
I could then say:
User::first()->messages;
Message::first()->sentBy;
With this setup, the recipients model could easily be called "group". When a user creates a message, a recipients relationship is created for the current user along with other users regardless if the message was sent to the one who created the message. Common? Ok. My issue is this, I need to return all conversation between us three userIds: [1,2,3]:
$messageId = 1;
// Message with id of 1 will not have a threadId, only its replies.
$userIds = [1,2,3];
foreach($userIds as $id) {
Recipient::create(['messageId' => $messageId, 'userId' => $id]);
}
We have a "group chat theme" going on here. If I need to query for message with us three users (above userIds), I'd do:
return Message::whereHas('recipients', function(Builder $q) use ($userIds) {
return $q->whereIn('userId', $userIds);
})
->orderBy('id', 'DESC')
->get();
Perfect. Exactly what I need. Now, let's create another message:
$messageId = 2;
$userIds = [1,2];
$queryUserIds = [2,3];
foreach($userIds as id) {
Recipient::create(['messageId' => $messageId, 'userId' => $id]);
}
// With this query, I'd expect to see message between the two queryUserIds **only**,
// Expected results should be an empty array because we have no message between userId 2 and 3 only. We have messages between all three: 1,2,3.
return Message::whereHas('recipients', function(Builder $q) use ($queryUserIds) {
return $q->whereIn('userId', $queryUserIds);
})
->orderBy('id', 'DESC')
->get();
How can I query messages between a set of userIds. Not sure I'm expressing myself correctly. All Im saying is, for users 1, 2 and 3, give me conversations with only those three users and nothing else because only those three are in the same conversation.
I got this idea from Facebook's messenger. I don't know how they do it but I'm "borrowing" a functionality; when you create a new message, it seems to retrieve the last/latest conversations between same "recipients". I know there are more complexities that go on but I wanted to do something simple.

Answer 1

Think I have found it. Correct me if I'm wrong. To recap, when a message is created, it creates an array of recipients with a message.threadId of null. When anyone replies to that message, you'll now have a message.threadId of 1. When I want messages between all three users: 1,2,3, I'd query:
$userIds = [1,2,3];
// Probably could use sql's sum but... 🤷🏽
$sumIds = array_sum($userIds);
$messages = Message::whereHas('recipients', function(Builder $q) use ($sumIds) {
// SUM is the key part.
return $q->havingRaw('SUM(recipients.userId) ='. $sumIds);
})->get();
This works 99% but I want the "replies", messages with threadId not null; I need the replies:
$message = Message::whereHas('recipients', function(Builder $q) use ($sumIds) {
return $q->havingRaw('SUM(recipients.userId) ='. $sumIds);
})
// I literally need the first in the array. I'd expect the array should contain one object and never more than one
->first();
if (!$message) {
return [];
}
// Another query to get all (conversations). You'll now see the picture:
return Message::where(function($q) use ($message) {
$q->orWhere('id', $message->messgeId);
// This gives me the "replies"
$q->orWhere('threadId', $message->messgeId);
})->get();
This works for now. If anyone could refactor, I'll gladly accept your answer with an upvote.
Thanks!