Restructuring database and multiple views for model - laravel

Question

I have a system where a user can input data into various forms and generate a custom document. When I set everything up, because each form has unique data, I create a Model/Controller for each type of document e.g. BriefDocument, InvoiceDocument etc.
I soon discovered that this became very messy, way too many Models and Controllers. It also took quite a long time to create a new document type. As such, I have rearranged my database.
I now have a Document model and a DocumentData model. A Document can have many Document Data. I envision something like this
Document
+----+---------------+-----------------+
| id | name | description |
+----+---------------+-----------------+
| 1 | BriefDocument | Something |
+----+---------------+-----------------+
DocumentData
+----+--------------+-----------------+--------------+
| id | key | value | documentId |
+----+--------------+-----------------+--------------+
| 1 | whatData | inputted data | 1 |
+----+--------------+-----------------+--------------+
| 2 | whoData | inputted data | 1 |
+----+--------------+-----------------+--------------+
| 3 | whyData | inputted data | 1 |
+----+--------------+-----------------+--------------+
| 4 | howData | inputted data | 1 |
+----+--------------+-----------------+--------------+
Doing this should allow me to create any type of Document using just these two models. My first problem is this, I have set up the routes as follows
Route::model('projects.document', 'Document');
Route::resource('projects.document', 'DocumentController', ['except' => ['index', 'show']]);
On a page I have a dropdown where the user can select the type of document they create. The dropdown has things like this
<li>{!! link_to_route('projects.document.create', 'Brief Document', array($project->id, 'Brief Document')) !!}</li>
So this will call the create function within my DocumentController
public function create(Project $project, $name)
{
$briefDocument = Document::where('projectId', '=', $project->id)
->where('name', '=', $name)
->first();
}
What I am trying to do in this function is first determine whether the same Document has already been created for this Project, because a Project can only have many documents, but no repeat documents.
If I do this however, I get
Missing argument 2 for App\Http\Controllers\DocumentController::create()
But am I not passing it arguement 2 within the link_to_route? From what I can see, this is passing my Project instance, as well as the string Briefing Document.
Why would I be getting this error?
Thanks
UPDATE
If I explicitly set the route it works e.g.
Route::model('projects.document', 'Document');
Route::get('projects/{projects}/document/{name}', array('as' => 'projects.document.create', 'uses' => 'DocumentController#create'));

Answer 1

You're getting this error, because you do not pass $name variable to the create() action.
Maybe the problem is in create() itself. This method is a part of RESTful controller and looks like it was designed to accept only Request object, so try this:
<li>{!! link_to_route('projects.document.create', 'Brief Document', ['project_id' => $project->id, 'name' => Brief Document')) !!}</li>
And create() action:
public function create(Request $request)
{
$id = $request->get('project_id');
$name = $request->get('name');
$briefDocument = Document::where('projectId', '=', $project->id)
->where('name', '=', $name)
->first();
}