Managing Many-to-Many Relationships with Pivot Data

// In app/Models/User.php
namespace App\Models;

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

class User extends Model
{
    public function roles(): BelongsToMany
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany(Role::class)
                    ->withPivot('assigned_at', 'expires_at')
                    ->withTimestamps(); // Adds created_at, updated_at to pivot table
    }
}

// In app/Models/Role.php
namespace App\Models;

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

class Role extends Model
{
    public function users(): BelongsToMany
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany(User::class)
                    ->withPivot('assigned_at', 'expires_at')
                    ->withTimestamps();
    }
}

// Example Usage
use App\Models\User;
use App\Models\Role;
use Carbon\Carbon;

$user = User::find(1);
$adminRole = Role::where('name', 'Admin')->first();

// Attach role with pivot data
if ($user && $adminRole) {
    $user->roles()->attach($adminRole->id, [
        'assigned_at' => Carbon::now(),
        'expires_at' => Carbon::now()->addYear(),
    ]);
    echo "Attached Admin role to user 1 with pivot data.
";
}

// Retrieve roles with pivot data
$userWithRoles = User::with('roles')->find(1);
if ($userWithRoles) {
    echo "User: " . $userWithRoles->name . "
";
    foreach ($userWithRoles->roles as $role) {
        echo " - Role: " . $role->name . "
";
        echo "   Assigned At: " . $role->pivot->assigned_at . "
";
        echo "   Expires At: " . $role->pivot->expires_at . "
";
    }
}

// Update pivot data
if ($user && $adminRole) {
    $user->roles()->updateExistingPivot($adminRole->id, [
        'expires_at' => Carbon::now()->addYears(2)
    ]);
    echo "Updated Admin role's pivot data for user 1.
";
}