Laravel ORM User can favorite Multiple Models

Question

I am trying to find out the best way to define the following relation using Laravel's Eloquent Laravel.

I have a User table and 3 Objects ( Player, Team, League) that the user can add as favorites.

I know I can create three pivot tables with the User Model and each one of the objects but then I will need to run a Union query to list all favorites from user regardless of type.

User
 id

Favorite
 id
 user_id
 favorited_id  ( player_id or team_id or league id)
 favorite_type  ( player , team or league) 

Player
 id  

Team
 id

League
 id

Here is my model.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6au8giufaejcghc/Screen%20Shot%202014-04-07%20at%209.06.51%20AM.png

Answer 1

i'd do it the same with a Favourite table. laravel covers this with its polymorphic relations.

your tables could look like

class Favourite extends Eloquent {

    public function favourable()
    {
        return $this->morphTo();
    }
}

class Team extends Eloquent {

    public function favourite()
    {
        return $this->morphMany('Favourite', 'favourable');
    }
}

...

your Favourite table would look like

Favourite
  favourable_id: int
  favourable_type: string

you'd call it like a normal property on the model like $player->favourable().

Answer 2

You can either use polymorphism as suggested by user3158900, or my preference would be to use Laravel's Query Builder to perform the Union query.

http://laravel.com/docs/queries#unions

$first = DB::table('users')->whereNull('first_name');

$users = DB::table('users')->whereNull('last_name')->union($first)->get();