Laravel Merged Relations

This Laravel Eloquent extension allows merging multiple relationships using SQL views.
The relationships can target the same or different related models.

Supports Laravel 5.5+.

Installation

composer require staudenmeir/laravel-merged-relations:"^1.0"

Use this command if you are in PowerShell on Windows (e.g. in VS Code):

composer require staudenmeir/laravel-merged-relations:"^^^^1.0"

Versions

Usage

• Use Cases
• Step 1: Creating Views
• Step 2: Defining Relationships
• Pivot Table Data
• Limitations
• Testing

Use Cases

Use the package to merge multiple polymorphic relationships:

class Tag extends Model
{
    public function allTaggables()
    {
        // TODO
    }

    public function posts()
    {
        return $this->morphedByMany(Post::class, 'taggable');
    }

    public function videos()
    {
        return $this->morphedByMany(Video::class, 'taggable');
    }
}

Or use it to merge relationships with different depths:

class User extends Model
{
    public function allComments()
    {
        // TODO
    }

    public function comments()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Comment::class);
    }

    public function postComments()
    {
        return $this->hasManyThrough(Comment::class, Post::class);
    }
}

Step 1: Creating Views

Before you can define the new relationship, you need to create the merge view in a migration:

use Staudenmeir\LaravelMergedRelations\Facades\Schema;

Schema::createMergeView(
    'all_taggables',
    [(new Tag)->posts(), (new Tag)->videos()]
);

By default, the view doesn't remove duplicates. Use createMergeViewWithoutDuplicates() to get unique results:

use Staudenmeir\LaravelMergedRelations\Facades\Schema;

Schema::createMergeViewWithoutDuplicates(
    'all_comments',
    [(new User)->comments(), (new User)->postComments()]
);

You can also replace an existing view:

use Staudenmeir\LaravelMergedRelations\Facades\Schema;

Schema::createOrReplaceMergeView(
    'all_comments',
    [(new User)->comments(), (new User)->postComments()]
);

The package includes staudenmeir/laravel-migration-views. You can use its methods to rename and drop views:

use Staudenmeir\LaravelMergedRelations\Facades\Schema;

Schema::renameView('all_comments', 'user_comments');

Schema::dropView('all_comments');

If you are using php artisan migrate:fresh, you can drop all views with --drop-views.

Step 2: Defining Relationships

With the view created, you can define the merged relationship.

Use the HasMergedRelationships trait in your model and provide the view name:

class Tag extends Model
{
    use \Staudenmeir\LaravelMergedRelations\Eloquent\HasMergedRelationships;

    public function allTaggables()
    {
        return $this->mergedRelation('all_taggables');
    }
}

If all original relationships target the same related model, you can use mergedRelationWithModel(). This allows you to access local scopes and use methods like whereHas() or withCount():

class User extends Model
{
    use \Staudenmeir\LaravelMergedRelations\Eloquent\HasMergedRelationships;

    public function allComments()
    {
        return $this->mergedRelationWithModel(Comment::class, 'all_comments');
    }
}

You can use the merged relationship like any other relationship:

$taggables = Tag::find($id)->allTaggables()->latest()->paginate();

$users = User::with('allComments')->get();

Pivot Table Data

You can retrieve additional pivot columns if your merge view consists of many-to-many relationships.

Add the desired pivot columns to all relationships:

use Staudenmeir\LaravelMergedRelations\Facades\Schema;

Schema::createMergeView(
    'all_taggables',
    [
        (new Tag)->posts()->withPivot('tagged_at'),
        (new Tag)->videos()->withPivot('tagged_at'),
    ]
);

$taggables = Tag::find($id)->allTaggables;

foreach ($taggables as $taggable) {
    dump($taggable->pivot->tagged_at);
}

Limitations

In the original relationships, it's currently not possible to limit the selected columns or apply withCount().

In the merged relationships, it's not possible to remove global scopes like SoftDeletes. They can only be removed in the original relationships.

Testing

If you use PHPUnit or a similar tool to run tests, add this property to your base test class to ensure that database views are dropped when the test database is cleaned up:

protected bool $dropViews = true;

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING and CODE OF CONDUCT for details.