Laravel 4 - Select related models

Question

I have following table

Schema::create('jokes_categories', function(Blueprint $table) {
    $table->increments('id');
    $table->string('name');
    $table->string('is_active');
    $table->timestamps();
});

Schema::create('jokes', function(Blueprint $table) {
    $table->increments('id');
    $table->string('content', 200)->unique();;
    $table->enum('is_active', array('Y', 'N'));
    $table->integer('category_id')->unsigned();
    $table->foreign('category_id')->references('id')->on('jokes_categories');
    $table->timestamps();
});

In the jokes table category_id is a foreign key and it has a one-to-many relationship with jokes_categories

In the model I have the following:

class Joke extends \Eloquent {

    public static $rules = array();

    // Don't forget to fill this array
    protected $fillable = array();

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

In the controller I have the following:

$jokes = Joke::all();

But it does not pull through joke_categories.name (I was under the impression that the model definition will directly help to pull related models)

What could be the solution?

Answer 1

Your query is just on the Joke table.

You could eagerload the categories ie.

$jokes = Joke::with('JokesCategory')->get();

See docs: http://laravel.com/docs/eloquent#eager-loading

Answer 2

The convention is actually camel case instead of pascal case, otherwise Laravel doesn't seem to automatically load the relationships. I made the same mistake and couldn't figure out why my relationships where not loading automatically.

public function jokesCategory()