Foreign Key Migrations Simplified In Laravel 7.x

In this article, we will see how to create foreign key columns in Laravel 7.x migrations very easily.

Before Laravel 7.x Creating Migrations

In earlier versions of Laravel creating foreign key constraints were easy but too much of syntax.

customer

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('customers', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('name');
        $table->string('phone');
        $table->string('email')->nullable();

        /** Added By Foreign Keys */
        $table->unsignedBigInteger('added_by');
        $table->foreign('added_by')->references('id')->on('users');

        /** Update By Foreign Keys */
        $table->unsignedBigInteger('updated_by')->nullable();
        $table->foreign('updated_by')->references('id')->on('users');

        $table->timestamps();
        $table->softDeletes();
    });
}

Basically you have to setup the column and then declare the constraints.

Foreign Key Not Null Fields

/** Added By Foreign Keys */
$table->unsignedBigInteger('added_by');
$table->foreign('added_by')->references('id')->on('users');

Foreign Key Which Is Nullable

/** Update By Foreign Keys */
$table->unsignedBigInteger('updated_by')->nullable();
$table->foreign('updated_by')->references('id')->on('users');

---

Laravel 7.x Creating Foreign Keys

In Laravel 7.x the foreign key constraints adding is like breeze.

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('customers', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('name');
        $table->string('phone');
        $table->string('email')->nullable();


        /** Added By Foreign Key */
        $table->foreignId('added_by')->constrained('users');


        /** Updated By Foreign Key */
        $table->foreignId('updated_by')->nullable()->constrained('users');


        $table->timestamps();
        $table->softDeletes();
    });
}

It's a very simple single liner now

Foreign Keys Not Nullable

/** Added By Foreign Key */
$table->foreignId('added_by')->constrained('users');

Foreign Keys With Nullable Column

/** Updated By Foreign Key */
$table->foreignId('updated_by')->nullable()->constrained('users');

---

Dropping Foreign Keys In Laravel 7.x Migrations

If you no longer need any foreign keys then you can easily delete them using the following migrations

public function up()
{
    Schema::table('customers', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->foreignId('added_by')->constrained('users');
        $table->foreignId('updated_by')->constrained('users');
    });
}

public function down()
{
    Schema::table('customers', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->dropForeign(['added_by']);
        $table->dropForeign(['updated_by']);
        $table->dropColumn(['added_by', 'updated_by']);
    });
}

First you need to delete the Foreign keys constraints, make sure to add separately.

$table->dropForeign(['added_by']);
$table->dropForeign(['updated_by']);

Then drop the columns

$table->dropColumn(['added_by', 'updated_by']);

---

Conclusion

Hope this article helped you. Please share it with your friends.

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