Soft Deletes

Converse uses Laravel's standard soft delete functionality with automatic cascading behavior. All the standard Laravel soft delete features work as expected (withTrashed(), onlyTrashed(), restore(), forceDelete(), etc.).

What Makes Converse Special

Automatic Cascading

When you soft delete a conversation, all associated messages and chunks are automatically soft deleted:

// Soft delete a conversation
$conversation->delete();
// All messages and chunks are now soft deleted too

Automatic Restoration

When you restore a conversation, all associated messages and chunks are automatically restored:

// Restore a soft-deleted conversation  
$conversation->restore();
// All messages and chunks are now restored too

Force Delete Cascading

When force deleting a conversation, all related records are permanently removed:

// Permanently deletes the conversation AND all messages and chunks
$conversation->forceDelete();

Standard Laravel Features

All standard Laravel soft delete functionality works as expected:

// Query including soft deleted records
$allConversations = $user->conversations()->withTrashed()->get();

// Get only soft deleted records
$deletedConversations = $user->conversations()->onlyTrashed()->get();

// Check if a record is soft deleted
if ($conversation->trashed()) {
    // Conversation is soft deleted
}

// Restore individual messages
$message = Message::onlyTrashed()->find($messageId);
$message->restore();

Important Notes

• The cascading behavior happens automatically - you don't need to manually delete messages
• This cascading applies to both soft deletes and force deletes
• Messages can still be individually soft deleted or restored if needed
• No custom events are fired beyond Laravel's standard model events

Next Steps

• Learn about Events triggered by soft deletes
• Explore Advanced Usage for more patterns
• See Events for real-time delete notifications