Handling Intermediate Table Columns in Laravel Eloquent Many-to-Many Relationships

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\Pivot;

// In your Role model (e.g., app/Models/Role.php)
class Role extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['name'];
    public function users()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany(User::class)->withPivot('status', 'expires_at')->using(UserRole::class);
    }
}

// In your User model (e.g., app/Models/User.php)
class User extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = ['name', 'email'];
    public function roles()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany(Role::class)->withPivot('status', 'expires_at')->using(UserRole::class);
    }
}

// Define your custom pivot model (e.g., app/Models/UserRole.php)
class UserRole extends Pivot
{
    protected $table = 'role_user'; // Specify the pivot table name if not default
    protected $casts = [
        'expires_at' => 'datetime',
    ];
}

// Usage example:
$adminRole = Role::create(['name' => 'Admin']);
$editorRole = Role::create(['name' => 'Editor']);
$user = User::create(['name' => 'Jane Doe', 'email' => '[email protected]']);

// Attach roles with pivot data
$user->roles()->attach($adminRole->id, ['status' => 'active', 'expires_at' => now()->addYear()]);
$user->roles()->attach($editorRole->id, ['status' => 'pending', 'expires_at' => null]);

// Retrieve and access pivot data
$userWithRoles = User::find($user->id);
foreach ($userWithRoles->roles as $role) {
    echo "User '{$user->name}' has role '{$role->name}' with status '{$role->pivot->status}'";
    if ($role->pivot->expires_at) {
        echo " (expires: " . $role->pivot->expires_at->format('Y-m-d') . ")";
    }
    echo "
";
}

// Update pivot data
$user->roles()->updateExistingPivot($editorRole->id, ['status' => 'active', 'expires_at' => now()->addMonths(6)]);