Laravel Extended Relationships Development

Laravel Extended Relationships Development

Overview

mrpunyapal/laravel-extended-relationships adds focused Eloquent relationship helpers for models that:

• map several foreign-key columns to named related models through one relation,
• map several foreign-key columns back to grouped inverse relations,
• read related models from an array column of keys,
• find parent models whose array column contains the current model key.

Use the package trait instead of hand-rolling custom relationship queries for those cases.

Setup

Add the trait to every model that defines these relationships:

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use MrPunyapal\LaravelExtendedRelationships\HasExtendedRelationships;

class Post extends Model
{
    use HasExtendedRelationships;
}

The package exposes four methods from the trait:

• belongsToManyKeys(string $related, ?string $foreignKey, ?array $relations)
• hasManyKeys(string $related, ?array $relations, ?string $localKey)
• hasManyArrayColumn(string $related, ?string $foreignKey, ?string $localKey)
• belongsToArrayColumn(string $related, ?string $foreignKey, ?string $localKey, bool $isString = false)

Multiple belongs-to columns

Use belongsToManyKeys when one model has multiple foreign-key columns that all point to the same related model.

use App\Models\User;

public function auditors()
{
    return $this->belongsToManyKeys(
        related: User::class,
        foreignKey: 'id',
        relations: [
            'created_by' => 'creator',
            'updated_by' => 'updater',
            'deleted_by' => 'deleter',
        ],
    );
}

The relations array maps source columns on the current model to the property names you want to read from the loaded relationship object.

Use it like this:

$post = Post::with('auditors')->first();

$post->auditors->creator;
$post->auditors->updater;
$post->auditors->deleter;

Lazy loading is also supported:

$post = Post::find(7);

$post->auditors->creator;

Multiple inverse has-many columns

Use hasManyKeys for the inverse side when the related model stores several foreign-key columns that can all reference the current model.

use App\Models\Post;

public function audited()
{
    return $this->hasManyKeys(
        related: Post::class,
        relations: [
            'created_by' => 'created',
            'updated_by' => 'updated',
            'deleted_by' => 'deleted',
        ],
        localKey: 'id',
    );
}

Read the grouped inverse collections from the returned relation object:

$user = User::with('audited')->first();

$user->audited->created;
$user->audited->updated;
$user->audited->deleted;

Array column to many models

Use hasManyArrayColumn when the current model stores an array of related keys in one column.

Typical example: a users.companies JSON/array column stores [7, 71].

use App\Models\Company;

protected $casts = [
    'companies' => 'array',
];

public function myCompanies()
{
    return $this->hasManyArrayColumn(
        related: Company::class,
        foreignKey: 'id',
        localKey: 'companies',
    );
}

$user = User::with('myCompanies')->first();

$user->myCompanies;

Inverse lookup from an array column

Use belongsToArrayColumn when the related model stores an array column and you need to find all records whose array contains the current model key.

use App\Models\User;

public function companyFounders()
{
    return $this->belongsToArrayColumn(
        related: User::class,
        foreignKey: 'id',
        localKey: 'companies',
        isString: true,
    );
}

$company = Company::with('companyFounders')->find(71);

$company->companyFounders;

Set isString: true when the array column stores string values like "7" and "71" instead of integers. Leave it false for numeric arrays.

Implementation guidance

• Add use HasExtendedRelationships; before defining any extended relationship methods.
• Keep relation names descriptive because consumers read grouped results from dynamic properties like $post->auditors->creator.
• Cast JSON-backed array columns to array on the model before using hasManyArrayColumn or belongsToArrayColumn.
• Prefer eager loading when a page or endpoint needs these grouped relationships for multiple models.
• Use normal Eloquent relationships when a standard belongsTo, hasMany, or belongsToMany already matches the data shape.

Verification

After adding or changing one of these relationships:

1. Eager load the relationship in a test with Model::with('relation')->first().
2. Assert each mapped property returns the expected model or collection.
3. Cover both integer-array and string-array behavior when using belongsToArrayColumn(..., isString: true).
4. Run the package test suite with composer test.

Common pitfalls

• Forgetting the trait on the model that defines the custom relationship.
• Swapping the source column names and exposed relation names inside the relations array.
• Using array-column relationships without casting the backing attribute to array.
• Omitting isString: true when the array column stores stringified IDs.
• Replacing standard Eloquent relations with this package when the schema does not actually require it.

Source: MrPunyapal/laravel-extended-relationships — distributed by TomeVault.