README

Allow customizing the "undeleted" (active) value for Laravel Soft Deletes.

Currently, Laravel's native Soft Deletes assumes that NULL indicates an active (undeleted) record. However, this assumption conflicts with database partitioning requirements in databases like MySQL. In MySQL, all columns used in the partitioning expression must be part of every unique key on the table, including the primary key. Since primary key columns cannot be nullable, it is impossible to use a nullable deleted_at column as a partition key.

With this package, developers can define a non-null "undeleted" value (e.g., '9999-12-31 23:59:59'). This allows deleted_at to be defined as NOT NULL, making it eligible for use in partitioning keys while retaining all native Soft Deletes functionality.

Requirements

• PHP 8.2 or higher
• Laravel 10.x, 11.x, or 12.x

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require to-mo-ki/laravel-soft-deletes-value

Usage

Replace Laravel's default Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes trait with Tomoki\SoftDeletesValue\SoftDeletes in your Eloquent models.

Then, define the $undeletedValue property indicating what value represents an active, non-deleted state.

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Tomoki\SoftDeletesValue\SoftDeletes;

class Post extends Model
{
    use SoftDeletes;

    /**
     * The value that indicates the model is not soft deleted.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $undeletedValue = '9999-12-31 23:59:59';
}

Optional: Include NULL in onlyTrashed()

By default, this package uses only value comparisons:

• active: deleted_at = $undeletedValue
• trashed: deleted_at != $undeletedValue

If you need onlyTrashed() to also include records where deleted_at is NULL (for legacy nullable schemas), set $treatNullAsDeleted = true.

class Post extends Model
{
    use SoftDeletes;

    protected $undeletedValue = '9999-12-31 23:59:59';

    protected bool $treatNullAsDeleted = true;
}

Note: if $undeletedValue is null, Laravel's query builder maps where(..., '!=', null) to whereNotNull(...). Also note that $treatNullAsDeleted only affects onlyTrashed(). It does not change the default withoutTrashed() filter or the trashed() helper behavior. This option is intended for legacy nullable data migration. The recommended setup is a non-nullable deleted_at column with a fixed undeleted value.

Behavior Matrix

Assuming $undeletedValue = '9999-12-31 23:59:59' and a legacy row where deleted_at = NULL:

Database Migration

Ensure your database migration uses NOT NULL with the default value matching the one defined in your model.

Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id();
    $table->string('title');
    $table->timestamp('deleted_at')->default('9999-12-31 23:59:59'); // NOT NULL by default in Laravel or specify ->nullable(false)
    $table->timestamps();
});

Supported Methods

This package supports all the standard Eloquent Soft Delete methods seamlessly:

• $model->delete()
• $model->restore()
• $model->forceDelete()
• $model->trashed()
• Model::withTrashed()
• Model::onlyTrashed()
• Model::withoutTrashed()

Quality Assurance

We maintain the highest code quality standards for this package:

• Style: Laravel Pint (standard Laravel preset)
• Static Analysis: PHPStan Level 9 (via Larastan)
• Code Coverage: 100% Line/Method/Class coverage
• Mutation Testing: 100% Mutation Score Index (MSI) (via Infection)

Running QA Tools with Docker

# 1. Format code (Pint)
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/app laravel-pkg-dev composer pint

# 2. Static Analysis (PHPStan Level 9)
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/app laravel-pkg-dev composer phpstan

# 3. Unit Tests & Code Coverage (Terminal output)
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/app laravel-pkg-dev composer coverage-text

# 4. Mutation Testing (Infection)
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/app laravel-pkg-dev composer infection

Testing

# Run tests
composer test

# Run tests with coverage summary
composer coverage-text

Testing with Docker (Code Coverage)

If you want to run tests with code coverage (PCOV) using Docker:

1. Build the development image:

   docker build -t laravel-pkg-dev -f requirements-dev.dockerfile .

2. Run tests with coverage (Terminal output):

   docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/app laravel-pkg-dev composer coverage-text

3. Generate HTML coverage report:

   docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/app laravel-pkg-dev composer coverage-html

   After running this, you can open coverage-report/index.html in your browser.

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.