How to filter a pivot table using Eloquent?

Question

I\'m using a pivot table on the project I\'m working with to get works of users.

E.g: User::find(1)->works gives me the works of user with ID of 1.

Answer 1

I try to setup all relationships in both directions as this allows for use of dynamic properties, eg $user->works().

class Collection extends Eloquent {
    public function contents()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany('Content', 'collection_content', 'collection_id', 'content_id')->withPivot('collection_id', 'group_id', 'field_identifier');
    }
}

class Content extends Eloquent {
    public function collections()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany('Collection', 'collection_content', 'collection_id', 'content_id')->withPivot('collection_id', 'group_id', 'field_identifier');
    }
}

class CollectionContent extends Eloquent {
    public function content()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('Content');
    }

    public function collection()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('Collection');
    }
}

Then query:

$works = User::find(1)->works()->where('active', 1)->get();

Eloquent's documentation is awful when it comes to the use of pivot tables. This is a great tutorial: http://www.developed.be/2013/08/30/laravel-4-pivot-table-example-attach-and-detach/

Answer 2

Whenever you call withPivot('foo'), Laravel you do:

SELECT ... `table`.`foo` AS `pivot_foo` FROM `table` ...

Fixed Answer:

MySQL in particular allows the usage of column aliases on HAVING, GROUP BY and ORDER BY clauses, but not on WHERE clauses.

Both HAVING and WHERE are used for filtering queries, but they behave slightly different: HAVING is applied after GROUP BY and WHERE is before.

As a general SQL rule, you shouldn't use column aliases (pivot_foo in that case) for grouping, filtering or anything like that, since it may not work with other SQL databases.

Although not recommended, it's possible to use:

return User::find(1)->works()->having('pivot_active','=','1')->get();

Answer 3

Laravel 4.1 brings native wherePivot and orWherePivot methods, which is directly a solution to my problem.