Many-to-many
A shared list contains beans that may be associated with more than just one other bean (many-to-many relation). Tags are a common example:
list($vase, $lamp) = R::dispense('product', 2);
$tag = R::dispense( 'tag' );
$tag->name = 'Art Deco';
//creates product_tag table!
$vase->sharedTagList[] = $tag;
$lamp->sharedTagList[] = $tag;
R::storeAll( [$vase, $lamp] );
In this example, a product can have multiple tags
and every tag in the list can be associated with other products as well.
The latter was not possible in the one-to-many relation.
Like the own-list the name of the shared-list has to
match the type of beans it contains.
In the database, these assocations will be stored using
a link table called 'product_tag'.
This link table is cleaned up automatically, if you break the association between two beans in a shared list the link record is removed as well. Also note that a shared list cannot have aliases and always applies a UNIQUE constraint (you cannot have duplicate links). In some situations this means you have to use a slighly different approach; the N11N relation.
Via relations
Using the via() method, you can treat normal beans as if they were N-M relations:
$participant->project = $project;
$participant->employee = $lisa;
$participant->role = 'developer';
R::store( $participant );
//get all associated employees via the participants
//(includes $lisa!)
$employees = $project
->via( 'participant' )
->sharedEmployeeList;
Remember that, since unrelated link beans are removed automatically, emptying a shared list (even using via) causes the link beans to be removed! However, you can always nullify the relations manually of course.
Via is sticky, once you tell RedBeanPHP to fetch a type of bean via another bean it will remember this for the rest of the program. So, once you told RedBeanPHP: $project->via('participant')->sharedEmployee it will always load employees using the participant table as a link table, even if you later say: $project->sharedEmployee. Also note that via() reloads the list.
Self referential N-M
You can have a shared list containing beans of the same type as the owner of the list:
$friends = $friend->sharedFriend;
In this case RedBeanPHP will operate in a special self-referential many-to-many relationship mode. It will not only retrieve all friends of $friend, but also all other friends that are associated with $friend.
You can use two complimentary one-to-many relations as one many-to-many relation. This is called an aggregation or N11N-relation.
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