Get posts from multiple users in Laravel - laravel

Question

In my site, I have a table of Users. Users can follow each other. A user can created any number of Post's.
I want to be able to see the most recent Post's from the users I've followed.
Currently my models are defined like this:
User Model:
class User extends Authenticatable
{
public function followers(){
return $this->hasMany('App\Follower', 'following');
}
public function following(){
return $this->hasMany('App\Follower', 'id');
}
public function posts(){
return $this->hasMany('App\Post', 'createdby');
}
}
Follower Model:
class Follower extends Model
{
public function postsFollowing(){
return $this->hasMany('App\Post', 'createdby', 'following');
}
}
Post Model:
class Post extends Model
{
public function user(){
return $this->belongsTo('App\User', 'createdby', 'id');
}
}
My tables are as such:
Table Name, column names
User id, name
Follower id, following
Post id, created_by
In the Follower table, id represents the user, and following represents the user being followed. If user 3 follows user 537, then id = 3, following = 537. Hope that made sense.
What I've tried:
User::following()->posts - doesn't work because
User::following() returns an Eloquent Collection object. You have
to loop through this
Looping through my followed users to get their Post's - This
doesn't work either since I want to get the top n entries sorted by
date.
Update #1
Follower Model (Updated)
class Follower extends Model
{
public function followingPosts(){
return $this->hasManyThrough(
'App\Post', 'App\Follower',
'following', 'createdby', 'id'
);
}
}
Controller
$user = Auth::user();
$posts = $user->followingPosts;
I updated followingPosts() in the Follower class with the above. The result: $posts is null
Update #2
I moved the followingPosts() to the User model:
public function followingPosts(){
return $this->hasManyThrough(
'App\Post', 'App\Follower',
'following', 'createdby'
);
}
Controller:
$user = Auth::user();
$posts = $user->followingPosts;
Now I just get all posts, even from the users I didn't follow.

Answer 1

Your requirement - "Users can follow each other. A user can created any number of Post's. Being able to list recent posts (limited to number) of followers or whom user is following".
You can define many-to-many relationship on the User Model (Many-To-Many relationship on self - User Model).
Create two Pivot tables
Follower-User Pivot Table
class CreateFollowerUserPivotTable extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::create('follower_user', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->integer('follower_id')->unsigned();
$table->foreign('follower_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();
$table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->timestamps();
$table->primary(['follower_id', 'user_id']);
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('follower_user');
}
}
Following-User Pivot Table
class CreateFollowingUserPivotTable extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::create('following_user', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->integer('following_id')->unsigned();
$table->foreign('following_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();
$table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->timestamps();
$table->primary(['following_id', 'user_id']);
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('following_user');
}
}
Then define the relationships in your User Model
class User extends Model
{
public function followers()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(User::class, 'follower_user', 'user_id', 'follower_id')->withTimestamps();
}
public function following()
{
return $this->belongsToMany(User::class, 'following_user', 'following_id', 'user_id' )->withTimestamps();
}
//Assuming posts table has user_id as foreign key
public function posts()
{
return $this->hasMany(Post::class);
}
//Assuming posts table has user_id as foreign key
public function recent_posts()
{
return $this->hasMany(Post::class)->take(10)->orderBy('created_at', 'desc');
}
}
Now to get who a given user is following
//Say for example we take the logged in user
$user = User::with('following.recent_posts')->whereEmail(auth()->user()->email);
foreach($user->following as $following)
{
$posts = $following->recent_posts;
}
Hope this is what you are trying to accomplish.

Answer 2

You can use has-many-through for this as:
public function followingPosts()
{
return $this->hasManyThrough(
'App\Post', 'App\Follower',
'follow', 'createdby', 'id'
);
}
Then you can access the posts as:
$user->followingPosts; // returns collection of post model
Note: Assuming you have a follow column in Follower table.