Select item by specific property

Question

I'm working in Laravel 4, I can my models simplify to these:

class DayVariant extends \Eloquent {
    public function chod()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('Chod', 'chod_id');
    }
}

class Chod extends \Eloquent {
    public function meals()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany('Meal');
    }
 }

class Meal extends \Eloquent {
    public function mealProperties()
    {
         return $this->hasMany('MealsProperty');
    }
}

class MealProperty extends \Eloquent {
     public function propertyType()
     {
        return $this->belongsTo('PropertyType', 'property_type_id');
     }
}

And I want select MealProperty by property_type_id. I was doing it this way:

$prop = $dayVariant->chod->meals->first()->mealProperties()->where('property_type_id','=', $foo)->first();

I need in this way get 5 from 70 the same mealsProperties for every meal. It works well, but I don't know how use eager loading for decreasing queries to database.

$dayVariant = DayVariant::with('breakfastChod.meals.mealProperties')->first();

I can do it this way and after it iterate over all mealProperties, but I'm looking for better way. Maybe with constraints I can get only mealProperties which I will need and iterate over them. Is there better way to get specific properties? If not, how can use constraints with my models? I tried this, but it fails.

$dayVariant = DayVariant::whereHas('breakfastChod.meals.mealProperties',    function($query)
{
     $query->where('property_type_id', '=', $constants['nutr_ids']['kcal']);
})->first();

Thanks for every answer!

Answer 1

You can do it in the context of property or like you tried of dayVariant:

// starting from properties
$properties = MealProperty::whereIn('property_type_id',$foo)
                 ->with('meal.chods.dayVariants')->get();

// or from dayVariant
$dayVariant = DayVariant::with(['chod.meals.mealProperties' => function ($q) use ($foo) {
  $q->whereIn('property_type_id', $foo);
}])->first();