Write to hasMany relationship with Eloquent ORM/Laravel - laravel

Question

Question about Laravel's Eloquent ORM. I've had a look on SO already, apologies if I've missed a similar question.
I have a User model, and I'm trying to write an array of Permissions back to the UserPermissions model, via the relationship in the User model.
I've setup the hasMany link already, and can retrieve the correct data from the User object ($user->roles), but can't work out how to write back if it is at all possible.
This is my basic user model:
class User extends Eloquent {
protected $table = 'users';
public $timestamps = false;
protected function roles() {
return $this->hasMany('UserPermission');
}
}
and the UserPermission model:
class UserPermission extends Eloquent {
protected $table = 'users_permissions';
public $timestamps = false;
protected $fillable = ['role_id', 'user_id'];
}
At this stage, I've reverted to saving the User, and then running UserPermission::insert(), which allows an array to be passed, but I'd prefer to do it in one step if possible.
Anyone know if this is possible?
Thanks!
UPDATE:
Table structure is below for your perusal:
users table
+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int(10) unsigned | NO | PRI | 0 | auto_increment |
| username | varchar(255) | NO | | | |
+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
users_roles table
+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int(10) unsigned | NO | PRI | 0 | auto_increment |
| name | varchar(255) | NO | | | |
| description | varchar(255) | YES | | NULL | |
| url_access | varchar(255) | NO | | | |
+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
users_permissions table
+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int(10) unsigned | NO | PRI | 0 | auto_increment |
| role_id | int(10) unsigned | NO | | | |
| user_id | int(10) unsigned | NO | | | |
+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
role_id relates to users_roles.id and user_id relates to users.id
As background logic, the users_roles table has a url_access column which contains a url. If the user is assigned to that role, they have access to the subpages from that url.

Answer 1

I do not really see why you are using hasMany relationship instead of belongsToMany. Actually it seems that your database structure is already such that is utilized by the belongsToMany relationship in Laravel.
My solution:
User.php
<?php
class User extends Eloquent {
public function roles() {
return $this->belongsToMany('Role');
}
protected $table = 'users';
protected $guarded = array('id', 'password');
}
Role.php
<?php
class Role extends Eloquent {
public function users()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('User');
}
protected $table = 'roles';
protected $guarded = array('id');
}
The corresponding database tables should be: users, roles and role_user. These are according to Laravel's naming conventions in order to keelp things simple.
Now you may call the sync method and pass an array to it:
$user->roles()->sync(array(1, 2, 3));
The sync method is briefly described in the Eloquent ORM documentation.

Answer 2

Okay here is what you could try.
Define a many to many relationship in both of the models.
class UserPermission extends Eloquent {
protected $table = 'users_permissions';
public $timestamps = false;
protected $fillable = ['role_id', 'user_id'];
protected function users() {
return $this->belongsToMany('User');
}
}
Then, if you create a user, use laravel attach method to connect a user to a users_permission like so:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->roles()->attach(1);
Attaching the role with an ID of 1 to the user with an ID of 1.
This is how you will be able to either attach a role to a user or attach a user to a role if you are creating a user or updating one.
I really hope that this is of help to you. If not, feel free to ask me further. I have defined many to many relations just a few days ago with photos and tags so I am quite into it I would say.
Also, the laravel docs even have an example with users and roles:
http://laravel.com/docs/eloquent#many-to-many

Answer 3

From reading your question it "sounds like" you are asking the same question I ran into the other day.
I hope this helps enable to you "bulk update" the relationships while maintaining timestamps and avoiding duplicate relationships.
Maybe there is a better way. I'm sure of it. But this worked perfectly for what I was trying to accomplish.
*Warning: this is not tested code. In fact the exact solution I used myself with some search/replace to help relate to your question
Class User extends BaseModel {
// [...]
public function roles() {
return $this->belongsToMany('Role');
}
public function addUserRoles(Array $add_user_role_ids) {
/**
* Prevent Duplicate Relationships
*/
$existing_user_role_ids = $this->roles()->lists('user_role_id');
$add_user_role_ids = array_diff($add_user_role_ids, $existing_user_role_ids);
if ($add_user_role_ids == null) return false;
$add_user_role_ids = UserRole::whereIn('id', $add_user_role_ids)->lists('id');
if ($add_user_role_ids == null) return false;
/**
* Attach (Insert into Pivot Table)
*/
if ( count($add_user_role_ids) > 0 ) {
$this->UserRoles()->attach($add_user_role_ids);
// Update timestamp
$this->touch();
}
// Return successfully added user role ids Array
return $add_user_role_ids;
}
public function removeUserRoles(Array $user_role_ids)
{
$this->touch();
$this->roles()->detach($user_role_ids);
}
// [...]
}
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