Route model binding with multiple wildcards - laravel

Question

How to explicitly say to route model binding to fetch only related categories? I have my web.php file as follows:
Route::get('/catalog/{category}', [CategoryController::class, 'index'])->name('category.index');
Route::get('/catalog/{category}/{subcategory}', [SubcategoryController::class, 'index'])->name('subcategory.index');
Route::get('/catalog/{category}/{subcategory}/{subsubcategory}', [SubsubcategoryController::class, 'index'])->name('subsubcategory.index');
Subsubcategory controller:
public function index(Category $category, Subcategory $subcategory, Subsubcategory $subsubcategory)
{
$subsubcategory->load('product')->loadCount('product');
$products = Product::where('subsubcategory_id', $subsubcategory->id)->orderByRaw('product_order = 0, product_order')->get();
return view('subsubcategory.index', compact('subsubcategory', 'products'));
}
And model in question:
public function subcategory()
{
return $this->belongsTo(Subcategory::class);
}
public function category()
{
return $this->belongsTo(Category::class);
}
public function getRouteKeyName()
{
return 'slug';
}
It works partially ok. It loads all the slugs, but the problem is, let's say I have Samsung Subsubcategory with it's parent categories like:
catalog/mobile-phones/android/samsung
Whenever I modify url from catalog/mobile-phones/android/samsung to catalog/mobile-phones/ios/samsung it works, where in fact it should not. How to handle this second scenario?
PS: it also applies if I open subcategory and change category slug. But, obviously, if upper level category does not exists, it's going to throw 404.

Answer 1

You may want to explore the docs a bit in regard to explicit route model binding and customizing the resolution logic to get some ideas.
https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/routing#customizing-the-resolution-logic
The following is untested and I'm making some guesses about your table structures, but I think this should give you a basic concept of how you can alter route model binding to fit your needs. The same concept could also be applied to the {subcategory} binding, but with one less relationship check.
App/Providers/RouteServiceProvider.php
public function boot()
{
// ...default code...
// add custom resolution for binding 'subsubcategory'
Route::bind('subsubcategory', function($slug, $route) {
// check to see if category exists
if ($category = Category::where('slug',$route->parameter('category'))->first()) {
// check to see if subcategory exists under category
if ($subcategory = $category->subcategories()->where('slug',$route->parameter('subcategory'))->first()) {
// check to see if subsubcategory exists under subcategory
if ($subsubcategory = $subcategory->subsubcategories()->where('slug',$slug)->first()) {
// success, proper relationship exists
return $subsubcategory;
}
}
}
// fail (404) if we get here
throw new ModelNotFoundException();
});
}
I will note, however, that this makes a number of separate database calls. There may be more efficient ways to achieve the same goal through other methods if optimization is a concern.