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 automatically:

$this->photo()->delete();

Preferably inside the model-class.

Answer 1

I believe this is a perfect use-case for Eloquent events. You can use the "deleting" event to do the cleanup:

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    public function photos()
    {
        return $this->has_many('Photo');
    }
    
    // this is a recommended way to declare event handlers
    protected static function booted () {
        static::deleting(function(User $user) { // before delete() method call this
             $user->photos()->delete();
             // do the rest of the cleanup...
        });
    }
}

You should probably also put the whole thing inside a transaction, to ensure the referential integrity..