how to force delete in laravel 5.4 - php

Question

I made a user management system with soft deletion and force deletion options. However, I'm having trouble getting the force deletion option to work.
The route:
Route::post('users/{user}/delete', 'UserController#forcedelete');
The relevant controller code:
public function forcedelete(User $user)
{
$user->forceDelete();
return redirect('users/trash');
}
The view code:
<a href="{{ url('users/'.$user->id.'/delete') }}"
onclick="event.preventDefault(); document.getElementById('delete').submit();">
<i class="fa fa-trash-o btn btn-danger btn-xs"></i>
</a>
<form id="delete" action="{{ url('users/'.$user->id.'/delete') }}"
method="POST" style="display: none;">
{{ csrf_field() }}
{{ method_field('DELETE') }}
</form>
The error that I'm getting is
MethodNotAllowedHttpException in RouteCollection.php line 233:
Why is it not working, and how can I fix it?

Answer 1

Try placing this route above your other user routes or user resource route. Also you're trying to use route model binding with a soft deleted model, which won't work. You need to use the id and delete it manually.
public function forcedelete($id)
{
User::where('id', $id)->forceDelete();
return redirect('users/trash');
}
Edit: Also delete {{ method_field('DELETE') }} from your form, since the route method defined is post.

Answer 2

Methods to remove/restore records from the table. Laravel 5.x, 6.x, 7.x
To enable soft deletes for a model, use the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes trait on the model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes;
class User extends Model
{
use SoftDeletes;
}
Soft delete:
This will move record to trash
$user= User::find($id);
$user->delete();
Force Delete: Permanently Deleting Models
$user= User::withTrashed()->find($id);
$user->forceDelete();
Restore: Restoring Soft Deleted Models
$user= User::withTrashed()->find($id);
$user->restore();