I'm new to Laravel 4 and I'm totally confused about it's models. I'm trying to create a database-driven navigation menu for my project and all I know is I have to create a model to interact with the database (based on my knowledge from codeigniter). I have been studying alot and I'm tired of not being able to go forward, this is the code I have come up with till now:
/app/models/navigation.php
<?php
class Navigation extends Eloquent {
    /**
     * The database table used by the model.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $table = 'navigation';
    /**
     * Get the unique identifier for the menu item.
     *
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getItemIdentifier()
    {
        return $this->getKey();
    }
}
And this is my Navigation database table I will use for this Model:

So after doing much more searching and reading from different sources this is what I came up with and it's working fine:
/app/models/Navigation.php
<?php
class Navigation extends Eloquent {
    /**
     * The database table used by the model.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $table = 'navigation';
    public function parent() {
        return $this->hasOne('navigation', 'id', 'parent_id');
    }
    public function children() {
        return $this->hasMany('navigation', 'parent_id', 'id');
    }  
    public static function tree() {
        return static::with(implode('.', array_fill(0, 4, 'children')))->where('parent_id', '=', NULL)->get();
    }
}
/app/controllers/HomeController.php
<?php
class HomeController extends BaseController {
    protected $layout = "layouts.main";
    public function showWelcome()
    {
        $items = Navigation::tree();
        $this->layout->content = View::make('layouts.home.index')->withItems($items);
    }
}
/app/views/layouts/home/index.blade.php
<ul>
    @foreach($items as $item)
        <li>{{ $item->title }}
            @foreach($item['children'] as $child)
            <li>{{ $child->title }}</li>
            @endforeach
        </li>
    @endforeach
</ul>
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