How to implement optional two-way relationships for users?

Question

I have a user model and these users have some sorts of relationships together.

Example: John is Jack and Jill's father.

Jack and Jill are siblings.

Jack is friend with Jacob and Joshua.

How can I implement this kind of relationship altogether? It's a mixture of family relationships and friendships so I'm confused what is the best practice for this?

Answer 1

you need to make two models : User and Relation. First, make two models related (one-many relationship):

Model:User

public function relations()
{
    return $this->hasMany(Relation::class);
}

Model : Relation

public function user()
{
    return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}

then in your Relation model(remember to set it on your Migration also) , you need to have four columns : user_one , user_two , type_one and type_two.

take the example : user_one : the father's user id / user_two : the son's user id , type_one : father / type_two : son .

there you go.