Order on second degree relationship in Eloquent - laravel

Question

I have two models in a many-to-many relationship: Fixture and Event.
Fixture:
public function events()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(Event::class, 'fixture_events')->withPivot('player_id');
}
Event:
public function fixtures()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(Fixture::class, 'fixture_events')->withPivot('player_id');
}
You will notice that the pivot table has an additional field player_id. This is because FixtureEvent also had a relationship to a model called Player.
FixtureEvent:
public function fixture()
{
return $this->hasOne(Fixture::class, 'id', 'fixture_id');
}
public function event()
{
return $this->hasOne(Event::class, 'id', 'event_id');
}
public function player()
{
return $this->belongsTo(Player::class, 'id', 'player_id');
}
And Player has:
public function events()
{
return $this->hasMany(FixtureEvent::class);
}
My problem arises when I want to get all the fixture_events for a player and sort them by a field in the events table. This field is named sequence.
However, whatever I do, the events always come out ordered by ID.
This is the query that I would like to order by events.sequence, whether by using some type of join or whatever works (this is inside the Player model so $this is a player object):
$events = $this->events()->whereHas('fixture', function ($query) use ($round, $competition_id) {
$query->where('fixtures.round', '=', $round)->where('competition_id', $competition_id);
})->get();
I've tried adding a join query here on fixture_events.event_id = events.id and then ordering by events.sequence but this doesn't work.
I've also tried adding orderBy directly in the model relationship, i.e. in the Fixture model:
public function events()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(Event::class, 'fixture_events')->orderBy('sequence')->withPivot('player_id');
}
But this does nothing for my problem.
How do I make this happen?

Answer 1

Update
At first I misread the relations, can you try with the below query?
$events = $this->events()->whereHas('fixture', function ($query) use ($round, $competition_id) {
$query->where('fixtures.round', '=', $round)->where('competition_id', $competition_id);
})->with(['events.event' => function ($query) {
$query->orderBy('sequence');
}])->get();
You have a couple of alternatives, but first I suggest you to edit your relationship to include the sequence field you are trying to load.
Then proceed with one of the following:
Order by on the relationship definition, but I think you have to load that field from the pivot table, otherwise you won't have its value, and prefix the relations table on the orderby field.
public function events() {
return $this->belongsToMany(Event::class, 'fixture_events')
->withPivot(['player_id', 'sequence'])
->orderBy('fixture_events.sequence');
}
or with:
public function events() {
return $this->belongsToMany(Event::class, 'fixture_events')
->withPivot(['player_id', 'sequence'])
->orderBy('pivot_sequence');
}
Order by a pivot field outside the relation can be done like this:
$events = $this->events()->whereHas('fixture', function ($query) use ($round, $competition_id) {
$query->where('fixtures.round', '=', $round)->where('competition_id', $competition_id);
})->with(['fixture' => function ($query) {
$query->orderBy('sequence');
}])->get();
or with:
$events = $this->events()->whereHas('fixture', function ($query) use ($round, $competition_id) {
$query->where('fixtures.round', '=', $round)->where('competition_id', $competition_id);
})
->orderBy('pivot_sequence')
->get();
Let me know if any of these methods works!