Method is not defined on the Query class

Question

I have some related models:

Client
id, name, user_id ++

Projects
id, title, client_id, user_id ++

Users
id, name ++

A client belongs to a user, and a client has many projects, and a project belongs to a client and a user.

When I try the following query to get the projects for a client, I get an error saying

Method [projects] is not defined on the Query class.

What does this mean?

I've tried the following queries:

Client::find(2)->where('user_id', '=', Auth::user()->id)->projects() // Throws error
Client::where('id', '=', 2)->where('user_id', '=', Auth::user()->id)->projects() // Also throwing an error

The following query works perfectly:

Client::find(2)->projects

My models are simple and looks like this:

<?php

class Client extends Eloquent
{
    public static $timestamps = TRUE;

    public function user()
    {
        return $this->belongs_to('User');
    }

    public function projects()
    {
        return $this->has_many('Project');
    }
}

class Project extends Eloquent
{
    public static $timestamps = TRUE;

    public function client()
    {
        return $this->belongs_to('Client');
    }

    public function user()
    {
        return $this->belongs_to('User');
    }
}

class User extends Eloquent
{
    public static $timestamps = TRUE;

    public function clients()
    {
        return $this->has_many('Client');
    }

    public function projects()
    {
        return $this->has_many('Project');
    }
}

Why won't it work when I use where clauses? It works when I don't use where clauses, but I need to filter projects and clients on user_id as well. (My plan is to allow multiple users connected to a company to see all their projects and clients.)

Answer 1

You are actually not retrieving anything from the query, just add first() or add get() then loop and call your projects().

Should work like this:

Client::where('id', '=', 2)->where('user_id', '=', Auth::user()->id)->first()->projects()

And according to your comment, it should work too for single row:

Client::find(2)->projects()->where('user_id', '=', Auth::user()->id);