Laravel search with relations - laravel

Question

I have the following relations in my Laravel application
class Item extends Model
{
public function category()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\Category');
}
}
and
class Category extends Model
{
public function item()
{
return $this->hasMany('App\Item');
}
}
I want to implement search functionality so I have created the following Eloquent query:
$items = Item::where('item_type', '=', 'type1')
->where(function($query) use ($q) {
$query->where('item_name','LIKE','%'.$q.'%')
->orWhere('item_description','LIKE','%'.$q.'%');
})
->paginate(10);
This is working as expected and returns the search results for 'q' based on the name and the description of the item.
As a next step, I would like to also search for the category_name. Because of the relation, I have the category_id stored in the Items table, but I would like to use the category_name in my Eloquent query.
Anyone could provide some help?
Based on feedback received, I tried:
Suggestion 1:
$items = Item::where('item_type', '=', 'type1')
->where(function($query) use ($q) {
$query
->where('item_name', 'LIKE' ,'%'.$q.'%')
->orWhere('item_description', 'LIKE' ,'%'.$q.'%');
})
->whereHas('category', function (Category $query) use ($q) {
$query->where('category_name', $q);
})
=> this gives following error message:
Argument 1 passed to
App\Http\Controllers\ItemController::App\Http\Controllers{closure}()
must be an instance of App\Http\Controllers\App\Category, instance of
Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder given
Suggestion 2:
$items = Item::where('item_type', '=', 'type1')
->where(function($query) use ($q) {
$query
->where('item_name', 'LIKE' ,'%'.$q.'%')
->orWhere('item_description', 'LIKE' ,'%'.$q.'%');
})
->whereHas('category', function ($query) use ($q) {
$query->where('category_name', $q);
})
=> this does not result any search result anymore (also not for item_name and item_description).
Solution
$items = Item::where('item_type', '=', 'type1')
->where(function($query) use ($q) {
$query
->where('item_name', 'LIKE' ,'%'.$q.'%')
->orWhere('item_description', 'LIKE' ,'%'.$q.'%');
})
->orWhereHas('category', function ($query) use ($q) {
$query->where('category_name', $q);
})
->sortable(['id' => 'desc'])
->paginate(10);

Answer 1

As you already described relation to Category in your Item model, you have to use just whereHas method:
$items = Item::where('item_type', '=', 'type1')
->where(function($query) use ($q) {
$query->where('item_name','LIKE','%'.$q.'%')
->orWhere('item_description','LIKE','%'.$q.'%');
})
->orWhereHas('category', function ($query) use ($q) {
$query->where('category_name', 'LIKE', "%$q%");
})
->paginate(10);

Answer 2

You could add a whereHas and constrain it. For example:
$items = Item::where('item_type', '=', 'type1')
->where(function($query) use ($q) {
$query->where('item_name','LIKE','%'.$q.'%')
->orWhere('item_description','LIKE','%'.$q.'%');
})
->whereHas('category', function($query) {
$query->where('category_name', 'name');
})
->paginate(10);