Laravel Eloquent: Repeating Relationships Reusable in Traits

If multiple Eloquent models in your project have the same identical relationship methods, like createdBy(), for example, you may extract them in a reusable structure. We will show you an example with Traits.

The image below is a good example:

You can make relationships reusable by simply creating a Trait and adding it to your models:

app/Models/Traits/HasOwnership.php

namespace app\Models\Traits;
 
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsTo;
 
trait HasOwnership
{
    public function createdBy(): BelongsTo
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'created_by');
    }
 
    public function updatedBy(): BelongsTo
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'updated_by');
    }
}

This allows you to add the trait to your models simply:

app/Models/Account.php

class Accounts extends Model
{
    use HasOwnership;
 
    // ...
}

app/Models/Company.php

class Company extends Model
{
    use HasOwnership;
 
    // ...
}

And so on. Then it gives you access to your relationships as you would expect:

$account = Account::first();
 
$account->createdBy;
$account->updatedBy;