Laravel Eloquent Many to Many to One relationship - laravel

Question

I'm creating a laravel application where the user logins in and can create clients and fill out an applicant form that is linked to the client.
I'm trying to make a relationship with many users that each have many clients, which have one applicant. But I get the following error:
Error
I'm confused with whats wrong and with naming the functions.
ClientContoller:
public function createApplicant(){
$data = request()->validate([
'name' => 'required',
'dob' => 'required',
'age' => 'required',
'gender' => 'required',
'ethnicity' => 'required',
'country' => 'required',
'interpreter' => '',
'language' => 'required',
'homeAddress' => 'required',
'job' => 'required',
'workAddress' => 'required',
'email' => 'required',
'phone' => 'required',
'contact' => 'required',
'extra' => 'required',
]);
auth()->user()->clients()->applicant()->create([
'name'=>$data['name'],
'dob'=>$data['dob'],
'age'=>$data['age'],
'gender'=>$data['gender'],
'ethnicity'=>$data['ethnicity'],
'country'=>$data['country'],
'interpreter'=>$data['interpreter'],
'language'=>$data['language'],
'homeAddress'=>$data['homeAddress'],
'job'=>$data['job'],
'workAddress'=>$data['workAddress'],
'email'=>$data['email'],
'phone'=>$data['phone'],
'contact'=>$data['contact'],
'extra'=>$data['extra'],
]);
dd($data);
}
User Model:
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\MustVerifyEmail;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
class User extends Authenticatable
{
use HasFactory, Notifiable;
/**
* The attributes that are mass assignable.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $fillable = [
'name',
'email',
'password',
];
/**
* The attributes that should be hidden for arrays.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $hidden = [
'password',
'remember_token',
];
/**
* The attributes that should be cast to native types.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $casts = [
'email_verified_at' => 'datetime',
];
public function clients(){
return $this->hasMany(Client::class);
}
}
Client Model
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Client extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
public $timestamps = false;
/**
* The attributes that are mass assignable.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $fillable = [
'name',
'email'
];
public function applicant(){
return $this->hasOne(Applicant::class);
}
}
Applicant Model:
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Applicant extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
protected $fillable = [
'fullName',
'date_of_birth',
'age',
'gender',
'ethnicity',
'country',
'interpreter',
'language',
'homeAddress',
'job',
'workAddress',
'email',
'phone',
'contact',
'extra'
];
}
applicants table
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
class Applicants extends Migration
{
public function up()
{
Schema::create('applicants', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string('fullName');
$table->date('date_of_birth');
$table->string('age');
$table->string('gender');
$table->string('ethnicity');
$table->string('country');
$table->boolean('interpreter');
$table->string('language');
$table->string('homeAddress');
$table->string('job');
$table->string('workAddress');
$table->string('email')->unique();
$table->string('phone');
$table->string('contact');
$table->string('extra');
$table->rememberToken();
$table->timestamps();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('applicants');
}
}
clients table
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
class Clients extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::create('clients', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string('name');
$table->string('email')->unique();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('clients');
}
}
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Answer 1

As Maksim mentioned, Laravel is confused which client it should create an applicant for. So, you need to specify it somehow. My suggestion is:
public function createApplicant(Request $request){
$data = request()->validate([
'name' => 'required',
'dob' => 'required',
'age' => 'required',
'gender' => 'required',
'ethnicity' => 'required',
'country' => 'required',
'interpreter' => '',
'language' => 'required',
'homeAddress' => 'required',
'job' => 'required',
'workAddress' => 'required',
'email' => 'required',
'phone' => 'required',
'contact' => 'required',
'extra' => 'required',
]);
$client = Client::find($request->id);
$client->applicant()->create([
'name'=>$data['name'],
'dob'=>$data['dob'],
'age'=>$data['age'],
'gender'=>$data['gender'],
'ethnicity'=>$data['ethnicity'],
'country'=>$data['country'],
'interpreter'=>$data['interpreter'],
'language'=>$data['language'],
'homeAddress'=>$data['homeAddress'],
'job'=>$data['job'],
'workAddress'=>$data['workAddress'],
'email'=>$data['email'],
'phone'=>$data['phone'],
'contact'=>$data['contact'],
'extra'=>$data['extra'],
]);
dd($data);
}
So, you need to form a request before sending data to controller, with an id field, where you specify, which exact client you want to create applicant for.
Alternatively, if you call it like
Route::post('/add_applicant/{id}', 'ClientController#createApplicant');
you could replace Request $request and $request->id with just $id. The main idea is just to pass an id parameter somehow.
However, you still can find a more elegant approach.