Laravel 4 : model assocation (belongsTo)

Question

I have a very simple tables association with laravel 4 :

foods table
  id
  name
  food_category_id

food_categories table
  id
  name

Here are my two models:

//models/Food.php         
class Food extends Eloquent {
    public function food_category()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('FoodCategory');
    }
}


//models/FoodCategory.php
class FoodCategory extends Eloquent {

}

When trying to extract category information form the Food model :

in controller:

class FoodController extends \BaseController {
    public function index()
    {
        $foods = Food::all();
        return View::make('admin/food/index',compact('foods'));
    }
}

In view:

@foreach($foods as $food)
        <tr>
            <td>{{ $food->id }} </td>
            <td>{{ $food->name }}</td>
            <td>{{ $food->description}}</td>
            <td>{{ $food->price}}</td>
            <td>{{ $food->food_category->name }}</td>        
        </tr>
@endforeach

I get the below error message :

Trying to get property of non-object (View: /Library/WebServer/Documents/xxx/test/app/views/admin/food/index.blade.php)

Based on the dynamic properties, data should be available from ->food>category

• I've followed the naming convention for laravel.
• Data exists in the database

Debugging with dd(DB::getQueryLog()) :

array(2) { [0]=> array(3) { ["query"]=> string(44) "select * from `users` where `id` = ? limit 1" ["bindings"]=> array(1) { [0]=> int(6) } ["time"]=> float(0.79) } [1]=> array(3) { ["query"]=> string(21) "select * from `foods`" ["bindings"]=> array(0) { } ["time"]=> float(0.32) } }

======= UPDADED

When adding eager loading :

$foods = Food::with('food_category')->get();

I got :

array(3) { [0]=> array(3) { ["query"]=> string(44) "select * from `users` where `id` = ? limit 1" ["bindings"]=> array(1) { [0]=> int(6) } ["time"]=> float(0.52) } [1]=> array(3) { ["query"]=> string(21) "select * from `foods`" ["bindings"]=> array(0) { } ["time"]=> float(0.42) } [2]=> array(3) { ["query"]=> string(67) "select * from `food_categories` where `food_categories`.`id` in (?)" ["bindings"]=> array(1) { [0]=> string(1) "1" } ["time"]=> float(3.23) } }

Answer 1

Try with eager loading:

$foods = Food::with('FoodCategory')->get();

Answer 2

It seems like your relations are inverted. You are asking for food_category through food. So food has a food_category and food_category belongs to food if this should be hasOne or hasMany I can't see from your example.

Database

foods table
  id
  name

food_categories table
  id
  name
  food_id

models/Food.php

class Food extends Eloquent {
    public function food_category()
    {
        return $this->hasOne('FoodCategory');
    }
}

models/FoodCategory.php

class FoodCategory extends Eloquent {

}

Answer 3

I think to resolve this question, you have two choice:

Fisrt:

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

Then do {{ $food->category->name }} which is more elegant

Second: just add 'id'

public function food_category()
{
    return $this->belongsTo('FoodCategory','food_category_id');
}