Automatically deleting related rows in Laravel (Eloquent ORM)

Question

When I delete a row using this syntax:

$user->delete();

Is there a way to attach a callback of sorts, so that it would e.g. do this auto

Answer 1

There are 3 approaches to solving this:

1. Using Eloquent Events On Model Boot (ref: https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/eloquent#events)

class User extends Eloquent
{
    public static function boot() {
        parent::boot();

        static::deleting(function($user) {
             $user->photos()->delete();
        });
    }
}

2. Using Eloquent Event Observers (ref: https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/eloquent#observers)

In your AppServiceProvider, register the observer like so:

public function boot()
{
    User::observe(UserObserver::class);
}

Next, add an Observer class like so:

class UserObserver
{
    public function deleting(User $user)
    {
         $user->photos()->delete();
    }
}

3. Using Foreign Key Constraints (ref: https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/migrations#foreign-key-constraints)

$table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');