Question

I have implemented comments functionality in one of my sites using CakePHP and it’s find('threaded') feature.

When I delete a parent comment, I want all it’s child comments (n-level children) to get deleted too, using CakePHP model’s delete method.

Say, following is the case:

id = 5   parent_id = 0;
id = 6   parent_id = 5;
id = 7   parent_id = 5;
id = 8   parent_id = 7;

And I do:

$this->Comment->id = 5;
$this->Comment->delete();

I want records with comment id = 5, 6, 7, 8 to get deleted.

Please advice.
Thanks

Answer 1

I haven’t tested the following code, but I would do something like this:

<?php
class Comment extends AppModel {
    public function afterDelete() {
        $this->deleteChildren($this->id);
    }

    private function deleteChildren($parentId) {
        $children = $this->findByParentId($parentId);
        if (!empty($children)) {
            foreach ($children as $child) {
                $this->deleteChildren($child['Comment']['id']);
                $this->delete($child['Comment']['id']);
            }
        }
    }
}
?>