Laravel Eloquent belongsTo not working

Question

I can't make the belongsTo relationship work (or I am using wrong relationship).

My database structure (simplified):

pages :

id | title | main_image
-----------------------
1  | Test  | 5

media :

id | filepath
-----------------------
5  | uploads/test.jpg

So I want to be able to do $page->main_image and it would return me instance of the Media model, so I could use $page->main_image->filepath etc.

In the Page model I have the following:

    public function main_image()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('App\Modules\Media\Models\Media', 'id', 'main_image');
    }

But when I do $page->main_image I just get int 5 . Am I using the wrong relationship here?

Thanks!

Answer 1

When accessing $page->main_image Eloquent will only try to find the main_image() relation if there is no attribute with the same name. But you already have a column name main_image . So you should either rename the attribut (column name) or the relation. I would rename the column to main_image_id .

The priority/order of what is to be returned is:

• Public object property ( public $main_page )
• GetAccessor ( $page->getMainPage() )
• Table column/attribute ( $page->attributes['main_page'] )
• Attribute/column from table ( $this->attributes['main_page'] )
• Loaded relation ( $this->relations['main_page'] )
• Unloaded relation ( $this->main_page()->get() )