I have an application where a User can be a Supplier or a Shop. Now these 2 roles have very different role-specific fields..
Basically, a Shop can make Orders to Suppliers.. So a Shop can make Orders and a Supplier will receive those Orders.
Where would I put these fields for good practice?
Neither of these seems like thé way to go. Any idea's? Thank you!
You don't have to stick with a single users table. You can have a Supplier model and a Shop model (with suppliers and shops tables).
Then in the config/auth.php file, you can set up a new auth provider using the Eloquent driver but with a different model. You can then assign those providers to any new guards that you create.
You can read more about authentication and authorisation here: https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/authentication
https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/authorization
Edit
After it was mentioned in the comments about polymorphic relations, I think that would apply better for this type of relationship (multiple types of users, each with own set of fields).
Read more here:
https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/eloquent-relationships#polymorphic-relations
Can a user have multiple shops or supply multiples? Your second option seems fine.
User hasMany: supplier, shop
- id
- name
Supplier belongsTo, hasOne: user
- id
- user_id
- fields_supplier
Shop belongsTo, hasOne: user
- id
- user_id
- fields_shop
$user->supplier->fields_supplier;
$user->shop->fields_shop;
$supplier->user->name;
$shop->user->name;
-- If you had more info on how you wanted it to work, it would help.
"Supplier" is a role played by a "Party" ("Individual" or "Organization")
Your store may get a Catalog from a Supplier, and may Request Quotes from them.
Your store creates "Purchase Orders" and sends them to the Supplier, and they send you "Order Responses"
A Supplier is not a user. You could create "User"s for their employees though
Why not just use an existing ERP like Odoo?