Laravel, best way to do the relation

Question

I have this problem: some users (user_id) have access to reports (report_id), but for a limited time only (in days, days_count) for any report, but each report can be accessed only a certain amount of tries (report_count) during the days_count.

In one table, the logic would be this:

One Table
---------
id - user_id - report_id - report_count - days_count
1 - 5 - 1 - 5 - 7
2 - 5 - 2 - 3 - 7
3 - 3 - 1 - 4 - 10

The first row would be read as: "the user with user_id 5, has access to report_id 1, he has 5 access left, and 7 days left for any access" etc.

I was thinking on make 2 tables like this:

Table 1
---------
id - user_id - report_id - report_count
1 - 5 - 1 - 5
2 - 5 - 2 - 3
3 - 3 - 1 - 4

Table 2
---------
id - user_id - days_count
1 - 5 - 7
2 - 2 - 10

Using that logic of 2 tables, how could I use the Laravel relations to establish my, relations?

Answer 1

For something like this you would use a BelongsToMany relationship between User and Report where the first table in your example is the pivot table.

I would also suggest changing the days_count to be a timestamp as you then don't need to update the days_count at the start/end of each day (assuming that's what you're doing).

---

Then for getting reports that a User has access to would look something like:

$reports = $user->reports()
    ->whereDate('access_until', '>=', now())
    ->where('report_count', '>=', 1)
    ->get();

Answer 2

You can use the belongsToMany relation with additional pivot fields.
Your User model should have the relation method to reports like this:

/**
 * User belongs to many (many-to-many) Reports.
 *
 * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsToMany
 */
public function reports()
{
    // belongsToMany(RelatedModel, pivotTable, thisKeyOnPivot = report_id, otherKeyOnPivot = user_id)
    return $this->belongsToMany(Report::class)->withPivot('report_count', 'days_count');
}

The Report model would then have the following counterpart

/**
 * Report belongs to many (many-to-many) Users.
 *
 * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsToMany
 */
public function users()
{
    // belongsToMany(RelatedModel, pivotTable, thisKeyOnPivot = user_id, otherKeyOnPivot = report_id)
    return $this->belongsToMany(User::class)->withPivot('report_count', 'days_count');
}