I'm a bit puzzled on how to best create an architecture for a multiple user type account. Watching the Laracasts episode on users and roles I figured a single User model with a Role model would be a good approach. However, rethinking the data I need for my different type of users varies, as for some users I need full address data and for others a name would be enough (to gently great them upon login). However, a Vistor might turn into a Customer. In fact, even the MerchantEmployee could become a Customer. This makes me wondering what my database design would become, e.g.
users => UserModel <fields> email, password
role: visitor => VistorModel <fields> name
role: customer => CustomerModel <fields> name, street, zipcode, ...
role: merchantowner => MerchantOwnerModel <fields> name, street, zipcode, ...
role: merchantemployee => MerchantEmployeeModel <fields> name
Would then all the Vistor, Customer, MerchantOwner and MerchantEmployee models have a user_id-column? Or how would you design such functionality?
I think to create two tables
First one is users
+----------+---------+-------+
| Col | Type | Notes |
+----------+---------+-------+
| id | bigInt | PK/AI |
| name | VARCHAR | NN |
| email | VARCHAR | NN|UN |
| password | VARCHAR | NN |
| role | ENUM | NN |
+----------+---------+-------+
The second one is user_data
+----------------------+---------+-------+
| Col | Type | Notes |
+----------------------+---------+-------+
| id | bigInt | PK/AI |
| user_id | bigInt | FK |
| address | VARCHAR | NN |
| {WHAT EVER YOU WANT) | | |
+----------------------+---------+-------+
And the relation to be one to one.
I recommend to use Laravel validation "required_if" to valid data before process it to database.
$this->validation($request, [
'address' => 'required_if:role,merchant_owner'
]);