Laravel delete records of table for past date automatically

Question

I have a database table which fetches some information from an API.

The columns are

id     datetime     name
10011  2018-01-26  something

What I am looking for is to delete this entry, since it's date now is in the past.

Is there a way to specify a cron job in Laravel, which automatically deletes the column - which has an entry of datetime and which is on past?

Answer 1

You can achieve this with 2 components: an artisan console command and task scheduling.

1. Create a console command which deletes old items
2. Schedule the command to run every minute

First we'll create the console command:

1. Scaffold a new console command using php artisan make:command TruncateOldItems
2. Within your new command define $signature as items:truncate and include a description in $description

3. From within the handle method select all items that meet your conditions, then run delete() on them, e.g:

   public function handle()
   {
        Item::where('datetime', '<', Carbon::now())->each(function ($item) {
            $item->delete();
        });
    }
   

Then we'll schedule the command:

1. Open App\Console\Kernel.php

2. From within the schedule method, schedule your command:

   $schedule->command('items:truncate')->everyMinute();
   

3. Start the scheduler by adding a cron entry:

   * * * * * php /path-to-your-project/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1
   

Notes: You'll need to swap out Item for your model, and include both your model and Carbon in the command class with use App\Item and use Carbon\Carbon at the top of the console command class.