Can I avoid foreign key constriant in laravel permission?

[theaungmyatmoe]

I know how foreign key is powerful. I have some issue with planetscale database which is not allowed to use FK in their database.
So, I started to make like that. Does there other great approach to avoid FK without losing integrity?

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Spatie\Permission\PermissionRegistrar;

class CreatePermissionTables extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        $tableNames = config('permission.table_names');
        $columnNames = config('permission.column_names');
        $teams = config('permission.teams');

        if (empty($tableNames)) {
            throw new \Exception('Error: config/permission.php not loaded. Run [php artisan config:clear] and try again.');
        }
        if ($teams && empty($columnNames['team_foreign_key'] ?? null)) {
            throw new \Exception('Error: team_foreign_key on config/permission.php not loaded. Run [php artisan config:clear] and try again.');
        }

        Schema::create($tableNames['permissions'], function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->bigIncrements('id'); // permission id
            $table->string('name');       // For MySQL 8.0 use string('name', 125);
            $table->string('guard_name'); // For MySQL 8.0 use string('guard_name', 125);
            $table->timestamps();

            $table->unique(['name', 'guard_name']);
        });

        Schema::create($tableNames['roles'], function (Blueprint $table) use ($teams, $columnNames) {
            $table->bigIncrements('id'); // role id
            if ($teams || config('permission.testing')) { // permission.testing is a fix for sqlite testing
                $table->unsignedBigInteger($columnNames['team_foreign_key'])->nullable();
                $table->index($columnNames['team_foreign_key'], 'roles_team_foreign_key_index');
            }
            $table->string('name');       // For MySQL 8.0 use string('name', 125);
            $table->string('guard_name'); // For MySQL 8.0 use string('guard_name', 125);
            $table->timestamps();
            if ($teams || config('permission.testing')) {
                $table->unique([$columnNames['team_foreign_key'], 'name', 'guard_name']);
            } else {
                $table->unique(['name', 'guard_name']);
            }
        });

        Schema::create($tableNames['model_has_permissions'], function (Blueprint $table) use ($tableNames, $columnNames, $teams) {
            $table->unsignedBigInteger(PermissionRegistrar::$pivotPermission);

            $table->string('model_type');
            $table->unsignedBigInteger($columnNames['model_morph_key']);
            $table->index([$columnNames['model_morph_key'], 'model_type'], 'model_has_permissions_model_id_model_type_index');

//            $table->foreign(PermissionRegistrar::$pivotPermission)
//                ->references('id') // permission id
//                ->on($tableNames['permissions'])
//                ->onDelete('cascade');
            if ($teams) {
                $table->unsignedBigInteger($columnNames['team_foreign_key']);
                $table->index($columnNames['team_foreign_key'], 'model_has_permissions_team_foreign_key_index');

                $table->primary([$columnNames['team_foreign_key'], PermissionRegistrar::$pivotPermission, $columnNames['model_morph_key'], 'model_type'],
                    'model_has_permissions_permission_model_type_primary');
            } else {
                $table->primary([PermissionRegistrar::$pivotPermission, $columnNames['model_morph_key'], 'model_type'],
                    'model_has_permissions_permission_model_type_primary');
            }

        });

        Schema::create($tableNames['model_has_roles'], function (Blueprint $table) use ($tableNames, $columnNames, $teams) {
            $table->unsignedBigInteger(PermissionRegistrar::$pivotRole);

            $table->string('model_type');
            $table->unsignedBigInteger($columnNames['model_morph_key']);
            $table->index([$columnNames['model_morph_key'], 'model_type'], 'model_has_roles_model_id_model_type_index');

//            $table->foreign(PermissionRegistrar::$pivotRole)
//                ->references('id') // role id
//                ->on($tableNames['roles'])
//                ->onDelete('cascade');
            if ($teams) {
                $table->unsignedBigInteger($columnNames['team_foreign_key']);
                $table->index($columnNames['team_foreign_key'], 'model_has_roles_team_foreign_key_index');

                $table->primary([$columnNames['team_foreign_key'], PermissionRegistrar::$pivotRole, $columnNames['model_morph_key'], 'model_type'],
                    'model_has_roles_role_model_type_primary');
            } else {
                $table->primary([PermissionRegistrar::$pivotRole, $columnNames['model_morph_key'], 'model_type'],
                    'model_has_roles_role_model_type_primary');
            }
        });

        Schema::create($tableNames['role_has_permissions'], function (Blueprint $table) use ($tableNames) {
            $table->unsignedBigInteger(PermissionRegistrar::$pivotPermission);
            $table->unsignedBigInteger(PermissionRegistrar::$pivotRole);

//            $table->foreign(PermissionRegistrar::$pivotPermission)
//                ->references('id') // permission id
//                ->on($tableNames['permissions'])
//                ->onDelete('cascade');

//            $table->foreign(PermissionRegistrar::$pivotRole)
//                ->references('id') // role id
//                ->on($tableNames['roles'])
//                ->onDelete('cascade');

            $table->primary([PermissionRegistrar::$pivotPermission, PermissionRegistrar::$pivotRole], 'role_has_permissions_permission_id_role_id_primary');
        });

        app('cache')
            ->store(config('permission.cache.store') != 'default' ? config('permission.cache.store') : null)
            ->forget(config('permission.cache.key'));
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        $tableNames = config('permission.table_names');

        if (empty($tableNames)) {
            throw new \Exception('Error: config/permission.php not found and defaults could not be merged. Please publish the package configuration before proceeding, or drop the tables manually.');
        }

        Schema::drop($tableNames['role_has_permissions']);
        Schema::drop($tableNames['model_has_roles']);
        Schema::drop($tableNames['model_has_permissions']);
        Schema::drop($tableNames['roles']);
        Schema::drop($tableNames['permissions']);
    }
}

[parallels999]

Feel free to make all the customizations you consider necessary for your implementation

Does there other great approach to avoid FK without losing integrity?

No

[theaungmyatmoe]

Thank you, I am finding alternative solution for that 🥹

[drbyte]

This package depends on foreign-key-constraints for database integrity when it comes to deleting records, instead of using package application code to manually delete all related records before deleting parent relations.

It would be best to use a platform that supports foreign-key relations.

[theaungmyatmoe]

Of course yes.
It would be better when we can enable emulation of referential integrity in our app. 🧐

https://www.prisma.io/docs/guides/database/planetscale#how-to-enable-emulation-of-referential-integrity

[drbyte]

Update: Good news: in v6 (expected release sometime June 2023) the package application code does more specific detaching of relations in-code, without relying on foreign key relations to handle it.

But if course it's still beneficial to have foreign key constraints in place in case someone manually deletes related records without using the package's functions, otherwise data integrity may be damaged in such a situation.