Relationship method must return an object in laravel eloquent

Question

I am trying to find a row with condition and that is...

A user has many profile pictures but there is one picture that is is_main

So this is what I wrote

public function profile_picture()
{
    return $this->hasMany('App\User_profile_picture');
}

public function active_picture()
{
    return $this->profile_picture()->find($this->is_main);
}

Now when I access it through

$picture = Auth::user()->active_picture;

It says

Relationship method must return an object of type Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\Relation

What is that I have to do to make it work?

Answer 1

Your code should be

public function profile_picture()
{
    return $this->hasMany('App\User_profile_picture');
}

You are missing the return statement

Answer 2

I think you can try this:

public function profile_picture()
{
    return $this->hasMany('App\User_profile_picture');
}

public function active_picture()
{
    return $this->profile_picture()->find($this->is_main);
}

Hope this work for you !!!

Answer 3

You must use class :

public function profile_picture()
{
   return $this->hasMany(App\User_profile_picture::class);
}

Answer 4

If you want to use a Model method as a property, it has to return a relationship. Otherwise you need to call it as a method with the () operator. Like explained here .

So the solution to your question would be:

$picture = Auth::user()->active_picture();

edit: TIL you can also set a custom eloquent accessor:

public function getActivePictureAttribute()
{
    return $this->profile_picture()->find($this->is_main);
}

$picture = Auth::user()->active_picture;

Yeah, you have to write the get...Attribute in camelCase, and can then use the attribute in snake_case/kebab-case or camelCase. (See the eloquent $snakeAttributes boolean variable.)