Ok, I think I've cracked this nut. No, it is NOT possible to eager load arbitrary queries. However, the tools have been provided by the Fluent query builder to make it relatively easy to replicate eager loading manually.
First, we leverage the original query:
$query = Child::where('date_of_birth','>','2004-03-27')->with('educationProfiles');
$children = $query->get();
$eagerIds = $query->lists('id');
Next, use the $eagerIds
to filterDB::table('education_profile')
in the same way that with('educationProfiles')
would filter EducationProfile::...
$query2 = DB::table('education_profile')->whereIn('child_id',$eagerIds)->select('child_id', 'GROUP_CONCAT(`education_profiles`.`district`) as `district_list`')->groupBy('child_id');
$educationProfiles = $query2->lists('district_list','child_id');
Now we can iterate through $children
and just look up the $educationProfiles[$children->id]
values for each entry.
Ok, yes, it's an obvious construction, but I haven't seen it laid out explicitly anywhere before as a means of eager loading arbitrary calculations.