Due to the nature of the components that make up the ORM and the way it pre-compiles your schema, you can relate your entities to external models using interface instead of class name.
Attention, do not confuse this with Morphed relations!
We can demonstrate such functionality by relating our Post model to an User using UserInterface:
class User extends Record implements UserInterface
{
//...
}
Where UserInterface can be empty or declare needed methods:
interface UserInterface
{
public function getName(): string;
}
class Post extends Record
{
const SCHEMA = [
'id' => 'primary',
'title' => 'string',
'author' => [
self::BELONGS_TO => UserInterface::class,
self::LATE_BINDING => true
]
];
}
You must always declare LATE_BINGING option in your relation to indicate interface or role reference.
Other relation options are still allowed.
Now, while updating your schema ORM will locate proper implementation and link it to our relation.
Note that you can relate only one model type to reation, when morphed relations can point to multiple model classes.
In some cases you might want to relate to an role instead of interface, this can be achieved using same practice:
class Post extends Record
{
const SCHEMA = [
'id' => 'primary',
'title' => 'string',
'author' => [
self::BELONGS_TO => 'user',
self::LATE_BINDING => true
]
];
}