John Davidson

Message:

I need a way to access a model's relationships without breaking the repositories pattern. For example, normally (without this pattern) we just need something like: $formation->courses()->create($data), but I don't know how I can do that with the repositories pattern...
Recently I saw that there are people who just create the "createWithParent()" method in the repository, but I don't know if it's correct.

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My Answer:
In Laravel, the repositories pattern is used to separate the data access logic from the business logic of your application. This pattern helps to keep your code clean and maintainable by abstracting the database operations into separate classes.

When it comes to accessing a model's relationships while following the repositories pattern, you have a few options:

1. Use Eloquent relationships in your repository methods: You can still use Eloquent relationships in your repository methods to access related models. For example, you can define a method in your repository that retrieves a model and its related courses like this:

php
public function getFormationWithCourses($formationId)
{
return Formation::with('courses')->find($formationId);
}


2. Create specific methods in your repository: If you need to perform specific operations on related models, you can create custom methods in your repository to handle these cases. For example, you could create a method like `createCourseForFormation` that creates a new course for a given formation:

php
public function createCourseForFormation($formationId, $data)
{
$formation = Formation::find($formationId);
$course = new Course($data);

$formation->courses()->save($course);

return $course;
}


3. Use services to handle complex operations: If you find yourself needing to perform complex operations involving multiple models and relationships, you can create service classes to handle these cases. Services can encapsulate the business logic of your application and coordinate interactions between repositories. For example, you could create a `FormationService` class that handles operations involving formations and their related courses.

Overall, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for accessing relationships while following the repositories pattern in Laravel. It ultimately depends on the specific requirements of your application and how you want to structure your code. Just make sure to keep your code clean, maintainable, and in line with best practices.