Laravel how use value instead of full object with join in eloquent model

Question

When I call eloquent:

$user = User::where('idUser', 1)->with(['privilege'])->first()->toArray();

It gives me:

{
    "idUser": 1,
    "name": "UserName",
    "email": "UserName@gmail.com",
    "image": "https://image.com",
    "createdAt": "2019-05-07 15:43:47",
    "privilege": {
        "idPrivilege": 1,
        "name": "user"
    }
}

When I call Eloquent:

$user = User::where('idUser', 1)->with(['privilege:name'])->first()->toArray();

Element privilege in json is set to null , but when I call:

$user = User::where('idUser', 1)->with(['privilege:idPrivilege,name'])->first()->toArray();

It is as same as first call. How can I set element privilege to fe user (I just want a simple value instead of the full object of Privilege )?

I can use something like:

$user['privilege'] = $user['privilege']['name']; 

But this one does not look so nice!

Using resource:

public function toArray($request)
    {
        return [
            'idUser' => $this->idUser,
            'name' => $this->name,
            'email' => $this->email,
            'privilege' => $this->privilege['name'],
            'createdAt' => $this->created_at,
        ];
    }

In controller:

$user = User::where('idUser', 1)->with('privilege')->first();
return UserResource::make($user);

Gives:

{
"data": {
"idUser": 1,
"name": "UserName",
"email": "UserName@gmail.com",
"privilege": "user",
"createdAt": "2019-05-07 15:43:47"
}
}

How can i just return object instead of data{object} ?

Answer 1

Try without the backets:

$user = User::where('idUser', $id)->with('privilege:name')->first()->toArray();

or this:

$user = User
        ::where('idUser', $id)
        ->with(['privilege' => function($query) {
            return $query->select('name');
        }])
        ->first()
        ->toArray();

But then, you could customize the response to return to your view using API Resources . With this, you can have many different resources to use on the same elements and format the response to any of your needs.

Answer 2

As stated in HCK 's answer, you could use

$user = User
        ::where('idUser', $id)
        ->with(['privilege' => function($query) {
            return $query->select('name');
        }])
        ->first()
        ->toArray();

To get what you need. Now, if you are already using API Resources , and want to remove the outter data object, you can add the following in your AppServiceProvider boot method:

use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\Resource;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Perform post-registration booting of services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot()
    {
        Resource::withoutWrapping(); // With this, your resources won't have the
                                     // outter data wrapping

    }
}

Just take a look at the docs !