Relationship with the same table (Many to Many?) - Laravel

Question

In my database I have to save people and the data of people that have a relationship with the first. For example: father, mother, son, daughter, etc

Then the design of the database, I did it in the following way Is a relation many-to-many because, a person have many people related to it.

But I'm not sure if is ok..

class Person extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = [
        'name', 
        'surname',
        'profile_picture'
         .....   
    ];

    public function relationships() 
    {
        return $this -> belongsToMany(Person::class);
    }
}

When I create the relation I create a thirth migration table call person_person to save the ids and a description (father, mother, son, daughter)

it's ok describe the relationship this way?

    public function relationships() 
    {
        return $this -> belongsToMany(Person::class);
    }

What should I add to complete successful this relationship?

Answer 1

You'll need to define the table, primary and foreign key, as Laravel likely can't determine this (it'll try, but it probably won't succeed). Something like:

public function relationships(){
  return $this->belongsToMany(Person::class, "person_person", "id_person", "id_person_related")
  ->withPivot(["parentesco"]);
}

or similar. Table name is a bit awkward, consider something else, like 'relationships' or something that conveys more meaning.

See https://laravel.com/docs/5.8/eloquent-relationships#many-to-many for details on how to define additional parameters for belongsToMany()