Updating a pivot table's additional column in Laravel 4 - laravel

Question

I have the following schema:
public function up()
{
Schema::create('messages', function(Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->mediumText('subject');
$table->text('message');
$table->boolean('draft');
$table->integer('sender_id')->unsigned();
$table->softDeletes();
$table->timestamps();
$table->foreign('sender_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onUpdate('cascade');
});
Schema::create('message_assets', function(Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->integer('message_id')->unsigned();
$table->string('filename', 255);
$table->softDeletes();
$table->foreign('message_id')->references('id')->on('messages')->onUpdate('cascade');
});
Schema::create('message_users', function(Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->integer('message_id')->unsigned();
$table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();
$table->integer('read')->default(0);
$table->string('folder', 255)->nullable();
$table->softDeletes();
$table->foreign('message_id')->references('id')->on('messages')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onUpdate('cascade');
});
}
What I would like to do is update the read column in the pivot table to true when the user view the message. I have the controller nailed its just how do I go about getting the relevant record from the pivot and update the read field only.
Here is the relationship:
public function to()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('SeriousJelly\Modules\Users\Models\User', 'message_users', 'message_id', 'user_id');
}

Answer 1

I am a little unclear on exactly what you want. A little controller code might be nice to see what you have tried and what you are trying to do.
That said, this may work.
$message->to()->updateExistingPivot($user_id, ['read'=> 1]);
Using to is a little ambiguous, i might use user to make it a bit more clear assuming this is on the Message model.
The docs have some good information.
UPDATE PER COMMENT
The code below works in Laravel 5 but I am not sure with 4.2.
$message->to()->sync([$user_id => ['read'=> 1]], false);