One to Many in Laravel - laravel

Question

I have a model in which a Firm has a status. This means there are two tables:
Firm
FirmStatus
I have this defined in my project like this:
class FirmStatus extends Eloquent {
protected $table = 'firm_statuses';
protected $primaryKey = 'firm_status_id';
protected $fillable = array('firm_status_id', 'name');
}
class Firm extends Eloquent {
protected $table = 'firms';
protected $primaryKey = 'firm_id';
protected $fillable = array('name', 'firm_status_id');
public function users()
{
return $this->hasMany('User', 'firm_id', 'firm_id');
}
public function firm_status()
{
return $this->belongsTo('FirmStatus', 'firm_status_id');
}
}
But I can't seem to get this to work, no matter what way I try to access the FirmStatus on the Firm it just doesn't work?
In my controller I have this code:
$firm = Firm::find($id);
$firmClassifications = DB::table('firm_classifications')->orderBy('name', 'asc')->lists('name','firm_classification_id');
return var_dump($firm);
which returns this:
object(Firm)[243]
protected 'table' => string 'firms' (length=5)
protected 'primaryKey' => string 'firm_id' (length=7)
protected 'fillable' =>
array (size=5)
0 => string 'name' (length=4)
1 => string 'firm_classification_id' (length=22)
2 => string 'fca_number' (length=10)
3 => string 'question_number_passed_on' (length=25)
4 => string 'firm_status_id' (length=14)
protected 'connection' => null
protected 'perPage' => int 15
public 'incrementing' => boolean true
public 'timestamps' => boolean true
protected 'attributes' =>
array (size=7)
'firm_id' => int 8
'name' => string 'siofds4' (length=7)
'fca_number' => string '' (length=0)
'firm_classification_id' => int 1
'created_at' => string '2014-09-08 11:06:17' (length=19)
'updated_at' => string '2014-09-08 12:24:23' (length=19)
'firm_status_id' => int 2
protected 'original' =>
array (size=7)
'firm_id' => int 8
'name' => string 'siofds4' (length=7)
'fca_number' => string '' (length=0)
'firm_classification_id' => int 1
'created_at' => string '2014-09-08 11:06:17' (length=19)
'updated_at' => string '2014-09-08 12:24:23' (length=19)
'firm_status_id' => int 2
protected 'relations' =>
array (size=0)
empty
protected 'hidden' =>
array (size=0)
empty
protected 'visible' =>
array (size=0)
empty
protected 'appends' =>
array (size=0)
empty
protected 'guarded' =>
array (size=1)
0 => string '*' (length=1)
protected 'dates' =>
array (size=0)
empty
protected 'touches' =>
array (size=0)
empty
protected 'observables' =>
array (size=0)
empty
protected 'with' =>
array (size=0)
empty
protected 'morphClass' => null
public 'exists' => boolean true
I am expecting that $firm->firm_status (method call or not, whichever way will work) will allow me to access the specified firm status, but $firm->firm_status results in null.

Answer 1

First off, you won't see anything in var_dump($firm) result unless you load the relation.
Next thing - Eloquent requires you to use camelCased methods for relations, if you want to work with dynamic methods (call $model->relation).
So you need:
public function firmStatus()
{
return $this->belongsTo('FirmStatus', 'firm_status_id');
}
then you can access it:
$firm->firmStatus; // FirmStatus model | null
$firm->firm_status; // this will be translated to firmStatus anyway, but not other way around
and to view it in your call:
$firm = Firm::with('firmStatus')->first();
var_dump($firm);
// but better use toArray(), since it's easier to read
dd($firm->toArray());

Answer 2

If a firm can have a single status, use hasOne() instead of belongsTo():
class Firm extends Eloquent {
public function firm_status()
{
return $this->hasOne('FirmStatus', 'firm_status_id', 'firm_status_id');
}
}
If you need to query all of the firms with a given status, add the inverse relationship to FirmStatus:
class FirmStatus extends Eloquent {
public function firm()
{
return $this->hasMany('Firm', 'firm_status_id', 'firm_status_id');
}
}