Hi guys,

I'm trying to find the best way to implement the following.

I have a Client of a given Sector who belongs to an Agency.

clients table:

• client_id

• sector_id NOT NULL

• agency_id NOT NULL

• [...]

Both sector_id and agency_id are mandatory and this rule is enforced in DB (NOT NULL fields, although).

I'd also like my Client model to ensure agency_id and sector_id are set so I coded it like so:

// BaseModel declares an event handler on "saving" 
// and uses Validator with $rules to check input
class Client extends BaseModel 
{
    protected $table = 'clients';
    protected $primaryKey = "client_id";
    protected $guarded = ['client_id', 'agency_id', 'sector_id'];

    protected static $rules = array(
        'name' => 'required|max:255',
        [other rules on contact info etc]
    );

    public function agency()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('Agency');
    }

    public function sector()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('Sector');
    }
}

And in my unit test I go

$sector = Sector::find(1);
$agency = Agency::find(1);

$new_client = new Client($attributes); // $attributes contains fields such as name, contact info etc
$new_client->sector()->associate($sector);
$new_client->agency()->associate($agency);
$s = $new_client->save();

Is this the right way to do it? Do I have to call associate method twice to link a Client to both Sector and Agency?

Thanks!