Laravel API开发：如何将children嵌套进data对象返回JSON？

期望的JSON响应结构 #

{
  "data": {
    "id": 1,
    "slug": "",
    "title": "first",
    "description": "This is the complete body for the CMS page",
    "parentPageId": 0,
    "image": "",
    "metaDescription": "meta ",
    "created_at": null,
    "updated_at": null,
    "creatorID": null,
    "isActive": 0,
    "children": [
        {
          "title": "first",
          "description": "This is the complete body for the CMS page",
          "image": ""
        }
    ]
  }
}

当前实际返回的JSON结构 #

{
  "data": {
    "id": 1,
    "slug": "",
    "title": "first",
    "description": "This is the complete body for the CMS page",
    "parentPageId": 0,
    "image": "",
    "metaDescription": "meta ",
    "created_at": null,
    "updated_at": null,
    "creatorID": null,
    "isActive": 0
  },
  "children": [
    {
      "title": "first",
      "description": "This is the complete body for the CMS page",
      "image": ""
    }
  ]
}

现有控制器代码 #

public function show($slug)
{
    try {
        $data = Page::where('slug', $slug)->orWhere('id', $slug)->firstOrFail();
        $sub = Page::select('title', 'description', 'image')->where('parentPageId', $data->id)->get();
        return['data'=>$data, 'children' => $sub];
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        return $this->returnJson(false, $e->getMessage(), $e->getCode());
    }
}

修正方案 #

方案一：直接为模型实例附加属性 #

将查询到的子页面集合添加到主页面模型实例中，再将主页面作为data的值返回：

public function show($slug)
{
    try {
        $page = Page::where('slug', $slug)->orWhere('id', $slug)->firstOrFail();
        $children = Page::select('title', 'description', 'image')->where('parentPageId', $page->id)->get();
        
        // 为模型实例添加children属性
        $page->children = $children;
        
        return ['data' => $page];
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        return $this->returnJson(false, $e->getMessage(), $e->getCode());
    }
}

方案二：使用Eloquent关联（推荐） #

这种方式更符合Laravel设计思想，便于后续复用关联逻辑：

1. 在Page模型中定义子页面关联：

// app/Models/Page.php
public function children()
{
    return $this->hasMany(Page::class, 'parentPageId', 'id')
                ->select('title', 'description', 'image');
}

2. 修改控制器代码，使用预加载获取关联数据：

public function show($slug)
{
    try {
        $page = Page::with('children')
                    ->where('slug', $slug)
                    ->orWhere('id', $slug)
                    ->firstOrFail();
        
        return ['data' => $page];
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        return $this->returnJson(false, $e->getMessage(), $e->getCode());
    }
}

两种方案都能让children嵌套在data对象内部，符合期望的JSON结构。

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Abhishek Regmi