Skip to main content

Unliking and Removing Interactions

This guide explains how to remove interactions from your content using the Laravel Like package. You can remove specific interactions by type, clear all interactions on a model, or wipe a user's entire interaction history.

Prerequisites​

  • Installation completed
  • HasLike / HasLove trait on your content model

Remove interaction by type​

Unlike, undislike, unlove (single row)​

These methods remove a single user's interaction of a specific type. They return true if a row was actually deleted, false if there was nothing to remove.

$post = Post::find(1);
$userId = auth()->id();

$post->unlike();     // Removes the LIKE row  → returns bool
$post->unDislike();  // Removes the DISLIKE row → returns bool
$post->unlove();     // Removes the LOVE row   → returns bool

Explicit user id variant:

$post->unlike($someOtherUserId);

From the facade:

use CSlant\LaravelLike\Facades\Like;

Like::unlike($post);
Like::unDislike($post);
Like::unlove($post);

All remove operations are transactional — they run inside a DB::transaction for data consistency.

Return value

unlike() returns true if a LIKE row was deleted. It returns false if the user never liked the model in the first place. The same applies to unDislike() and unlove().

Remove all interactions on a model​

Use forgetInteractions() to delete all interaction rows (all users, all types) on a given model:

$post = Post::find(1);

$post->forgetInteractions();         // Deletes everything
$post->forgetInteractions('like');   // Deletes only likes (all users)
$post->forgetInteractions('dislike');
$post->forgetInteractions('love');

forgetInteractionsOfType() is an alias for filtering by a single type:

$post->forgetInteractionsOfType('like');
Caution

These methods delete all rows for all users. Use them sparingly — typically only when deleting the parent model itself.

Remove all interactions by a user​

The UserHasInteraction trait on your User model also provides forgetInteractions():

$user = User::find(1);

$user->forgetInteractions();       // Removes all of this user's interactions
$user->forgetInteractions('like');  // Removes only this user's likes

To remove a specific user's interaction on a specific model, use the likes() relationship directly:

$post->likes()
    ->where('user_id', $userId)
    ->delete();

Toggle interactions​

See the dedicated Toggle Interactions page for the toggle() method, which cycles between states (like → remove, dislike → like, etc.).

Practical examples​

Like button in a controller​

use CSlant\LaravelLike\Facades\Like;

class PostLikeController extends Controller
{
    public function toggleLike(Post $post)
    {
        $liked = $post->isLiked();

        if ($liked) {
            $post->unlike();
            $status = 'unliked';
        } else {
            $post->like();
            $status = 'liked';
        }

        return response()->json([
            'status' => $status,
            'likes_count' => $post->likesCount(),
        ]);
    }
}

Bulk remove old interactions​

use CSlant\LaravelLike\Models\Like;

// Remove all interactions older than 90 days for a specific model type
Like::where('model_type', Post::class)
    ->where('created_at', '<', now()->subDays(90))
    ->delete();

Next Steps​