Like + Dislikes Laravel - php

Question

I am working on a web programing assignment for University and have hit a snag when trying to make a like and dislike function for a comments area of a guestbook.
Evectively the numbers on the site should update by one once either the dislike or like button is pressed.
My comments display correctly however the liking function is broken and I have no idea how to fix it.
Here is my code
Controller (LikesController.php)
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
class LikesController extends Controller (It says my Like Controller is never used not sure why this is)
{
public function likepl (Comment, $comment) { (Says that Comment is "Undefined" also not sure why this is)
$comment -> likePlus (); (Method likePlus not found)
return redirect () -> action ('CommentController#index');
}
}
Model (comment.php)
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Comment extends Model
{
public static function paginate(int $COMMENTS_PER_PAGE)
{
}
public function likePlus()
{
$this -> likes += 1;
$this -> update ();
}
public function dislikePlus()
{
$this -> dislikes += 1;
$this -> update ();
}
}
View Page (comment.comments)
#extends('setup')
#section('content')
<div class="container main-table">
<div class="box">
<h1 class="title">Guest book Comments</h1>
#if (count ($comments) > 5)
<table class="table is-striped is-hoverable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>User</th>
<th>Comment</th>
<th>Date</th>
<th>Likes</th>
<th>DisLikes</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
#foreach ($comments as $c)
{{--declaring the comments--}}
<tr>
<td>{{ $c -> user }}</td>
<td>{{ $c -> comments }}</td>
<td>{{ $c -> created_at -> format ('D jS F') }}</td>
<td>{{ $c -> likes }}</td>
<td>{{ $c -> dislikes }}</td>
</tr>
<tr class="icon heart">
<td><a class="button" href="/comment/{{ $c -> id }}/like/"><ion-icon name="md-heart"></ion-icon></a></td>
<td><a class="button" href="/comment/{{ $c -> id }}/dislike/"><ion-icon name="md-heart-empty"></ion-icon></a></td>
</tr>
#endforeach
</table>
{{ $comments -> links() }} {{-- Setting pagination--}}
#else
<div class="notification is-info">
<p>
The Guest book is empty. Why not add a comment?
</p>
</div>
#endif
</div>
</div>
#endsection
I have annotated the code with the visible errors that I get as for better refference.
Here are the Routes that I am using for the comments page.
Route::get('/','CommentController#index');
Route::get('/comment/{comment}/like/', 'LikesController#likePl');
Route::get('/comment/{comment}/dislike/', 'DislikesController#dislikePl');

Answer 1

The update() function does not work the way you are using it. You either update the property and use the save() function, or you pass an array to the update function.
// 1.
$this->likes += 1;
$this->save();
// 2.
$this->update([
'likes' => $this->likes + 1,
]);
Update: Even better would be to use the built-in increment() function:
$this->increment('likes');
This way there is no need to know the number of likes beforehand.

Answer 2

Can we please work on the following first.
LikePl function name should match the name on the router (action#method)
The method inside the controller accept request like so
public function likePl (Request $request) { //code here }
Methods inside the Model are accessed using their namespace like so
App\Comment::likePlus() or you can import the namespace like "use App\Comment" there after inside the method just simply do "Comment::likePlus()".
Please refer here Laravel models for more information.
Fixing this will remove the errors you currently have. Use "dd($request->all())" inside your likePl method to check if you are getting the values you expect.
Hope this help a bit...