Laravel: Eloquent Relationship error - laravel

Question

I have a many to many relationship between products and a product_categories tables. Now I want to create a translation table for categories.
But how do I relate them in eloquent? i am learning database relationships so forgive my ignorance.
Here is my tables:
//languages
Schema::create('locales', function(Blueprint $table)
{
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('code', 2);
$table->string('name');
});
//products
Schema::create('products', function(Blueprint $table)
{
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('thumbnail');
$table->timestamps();
});
//categories
Schema::create('product_categories', function(Blueprint $table)
{
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('category');
});
//relationship table
Schema::create('product_productcategory', function(Blueprint $table)
{
$table->integer('product_id')->unsigned()->index(); // the id of the bear
$table->foreign('product_id')->references('id')->on('products');
$table->integer('product_category_id')->unsigned()->index(); // the id of the picnic that this bear is at
$table->foreign('product_category_id')->references('id')->on('product_categories');
});
//category translations
Schema::create('category_translations', function(Blueprint $table)
{
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('name');
$table->integer('category_id')->unsigned();
$table->foreign('category_id')->references('id')->on('product_categories')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->integer('locale_id')->unsigned();
$table->foreign('locale_id')->references('id')->on('locales')->onDelete('cascade');
$table->unique(['category_id', 'locale_id']);
});
Product Model:
class Product extends Model
{
protected $table = 'products';
public function product_category() {
return $this->belongsToMany('App\product_category', 'product_productcategory')->translation(1);
}
}
Product categories:
class product_category extends Model
{
protected $table = 'product_categories';
public function product() {
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Product', 'product_productcategory');
}
}
Category Translations
class Category_Translation extends Model
{
protected $table = 'category_translations';
public function product_category() {
return $this->belongsTo('App\product_category');
}
}
But when i run:
$product = App\Product::find(1)->first();
echo $product->product_category;
I get error:
Call to undefined method Illuminate\Database\Query\Builder::translation()

Answer 1

You should not call translation in the Product model category relation (because you still interacting with the query builder), instead you should access the translation as a property on the category object:
echo $product->product_category->first()->getTranslatedIn(1)->name;
So you could refactor your code like this:
Product Model:
class Product extends Model
{
protected $table = 'products';
public function product_category() {
return $this->belongsToMany('App\product_category', 'product_productcategory');
}
}
Product categories:
class product_category extends Model
{
protected $table = 'product_categories';
public function product() {
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Product', 'product_productcategory');
}
public function translations() {
return $this->hasMany('App\Category_Translation', 'category_translations');
}
// relation filtered by language (cannot be accessed as a property unless you define the parameter as optional)
public function translatedIn($language) {
return $this->hasOne('App\Category_Translation', 'category_id')->where('locale_id', $language);
}
// access translated object
public function getTranslatedIn($language) {
return $this->translatedIn($language)->getResults();
}
}