laravel - Build a multi level array from a has many relationship -

i building basic cms in laravel 5.2.

i have 'pages' model. model has 'has many' relationship page can have many sub pages , sub page can have many sub sub pages etc.

my model defined such:

class page extends model {     public function children()     {         return $this->hasmany('app\page', 'page_parent');     } } 

my database so

+----+-----------------+------------------------+------------+-------------+ | id | title           | description            | project_id | page_parent | +----+-----------------+------------------------+------------+-------------+ |  1 | overview        | overview page      |          1 |           0 | |  2 | overview sub    | child page             |          1 |           1 | |  3 | young page | kiddy page |          1 |           2 | +----+-----------------+------------------------+------------+-------------+ 

then in controller have:

public function index() {     $pages = page::with('children')->get();     return response()->json($pages, 200); } 

what does: returns pages expected, however, pages 1 level deep 1 level in 'children' object so:

[    {       "id":1,       "title":"overview",       "description":"the overview page",       "project_id":"1",       "page_parent":"0",       "children":[          {             "id":2,             "title":"overview sub",             "description":"child page",             "project_id":"1",             "page_parent":"1",          }       ]    },    {       "id":2,       "title":"overview sub",       "description":"child page",       "project_id":"1",       "page_parent":"1",       "children":[          {             "id":3,             "title":"very young page",             "description":"this kiddy page",             "project_id":"1",             "page_parent":"2"          }       ]    },    {       "id":3,       "title":"very young page",       "description":"this kiddy page",       "project_id":"1",       "page_parent":"2",       "children":[        ]    }    ] 

what want better front end dev there 1 root json object (the top level page) , 'children' object recurse build multi level tree of pages so:

[ {       "id":1,       "title":"overview",       "description":"the overview page",       "project_id":"1",       "page_parent":"0",       "children":[          {             "id":2,             "title":"overview sub",             "description":"child page",             "project_id":"1",             "page_parent":"1",             "children":[             {                  [                  "id":3,                  "title":"very young page",                  "description":"this kiddy page",                  "project_id":"1",                  "page_parent":"2",                  "children":[                   ]                  ]             }             ]          }       ]    }, ] 

i can think of few hacky ways, want know best 'laravel way'. should using accessor or that?

thanks

you can this:

$pages = page::with('children')->get()->tojson(); 

this works:

$pages = page::with('children')->get()->groupby('page_parent')->tojson();