Laravel Category Model Relationships - laravel

Question

I have the following table structure in my database.
Table Name: tiles
Columns: id, tile_name, tile_thumb, tile_snippet
Table Name: tags
Columns: id, tag_title
Table Name: tile_tags
Columns: id, tile_id, tag_id
Models:
Tile, Tag, TileTag
In my main model class for entries I am specifying the following relationship to a model called TileTag which is a pivot table.
<?php namespace Tiles;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Tile extends Model {
protected $table = 'tiles';
public function tags() {
return $this->belongsTo('Tiles\TileTag');
}
}
During my foreach loop it returns the tile_name and any other columns from my table, except the ones joined by the relatipnship.
#foreach($tiles as $tile)
<a href="tile/{{$tile->tile_name}}">
<li class="col-md-4 mix" data-category="{{ $tile->tags->tag_title }}">
{!! HTML::image($tile->tile_thumb, null, array('class' => 'img-responsive')) !!}
</li>
</a>
#endforeach
How can I get my categories/tags linked to my primary entries when they are sorted during each loop?
I try returning the data during the loop by {{ $tile->tags->tag_title }} but it returns an empty string.
Controller Method:
class TileController extends Controller {
/**
* Display a listing of tiles from the database.
*
* #return Response
*/
public function index() {
// Get tile data from the model
$tiles = \Tiles\Tile::all();
return view('pages.index', compact('tiles'));
}
Returned Array:

Answer 1

I think that you don't have to create a model for Tile_Tag. Laravel can handle ManyToMany relationships out of the box (I suppose that this is the type of the relationship because you use pivot table). Your models should be
class Tile extends Model {
protected $table = 'tiles';
public function tags() {
return $this->belongsToMany('Tiles\Tag');
}
}
and
class Tag extends Model {
protected $table = 'tags';
public function tiles() {
return $this->belongsToMany('Tiles\Tile');
}
}
Laravel will know that you have a pivot table named "tag_tile" with columns "tag_id" and "tile_id". Check the relevant documentation here
Then you can iterate through tags collection for each tile like this
#foreach ($tiles as $tile)
{!!$tile->tile_name!!}
#foreach ($tile->tag as $tag)
{!!$tag->tag_title!!}
#endforeach
#endforeach
Hope it helps.