Returning multiple Laravel Eloquent models as JSON

Question

My "user" model with a has-many relationship to an "image" model.

Returning just the user is as easy as "return Response::eloquent($user);". I'd like to either return a JSON array of {user: {id:…}, images: [{id:…},{id:…}]} or, perhaps better, {id:…, images: [{id:…},{id:…}]}

What's the best way to arrange and ship these models? Should I

Answer 1

The first thing you'll need to do is make sure your models are set up correctly:

class Users extends Eloquent {

    public function images()
    {
        return $this->hasMany('Image');
    }

}

class Image extends Eloquent {

    public function user()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('User');
    }

}

Then in your route you should be able to do something like:

Route::any('userinfo/{$userId}', function($userId)
{
    return Response::json(User::with('images')->find($userId));

    //or

    return User::with('images')->find($userId)->toJson();
});