Laravel 5.1 QueryException When Trying To Delete A Project

I am building something that allows users to upload their graphical work and other users can comments on the projects and like other projects.

Now when a user wants to delete their own project it works but as soon as the project has comments or likes I get this error:

Integrity constraint violation: 1451 
Cannot delete or update a parent row: a foreign key constraint fails 
(`scotchbox`.`comments`, CONSTRAINT `comments_on_projects_foreign` FOREIGN KEY (`on_projects`) 
REFERENCES `projects` (`id`)) (SQL: delete from `projects` 
where `id` = 31 and `user_id` = 32)

I assume this can be resolved by deleting the comments from the comments table and the likes from the likes table aswell? but I honestly have no idea how to fix this issue with the foreign keys.

I think I need a way to delete the comments and likes of the project before deleting the project itself. Is this possible from the destroy function of my ProjectsController?

This is my destroy function for deleting the projects:

public function destroy($id)
{
    $input = Request::all();
    Project::whereId($id)->whereUserId(Auth::user()->id)->delete();
    return redirect('projects/');
}

When you have a foreign key, you can choose the behavior of deletion.

You have: Users, Projects

User has many Projects

so that means in the Projects schema you will have something similar to this

 Schema::create('projects', function(Blueprint $table){
    // table fields
    $table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();
    $table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users');
 });

In this case, you have established a relation without saying "how to behave" if a deletion occurs on the parent (User), that means if you attempt to delete the user, the query exception will be thrown to protect you.

So, if this is the case, you will have to find all the children (Projects) of that parent (User), and delete them before you are able to delete the Parent.

the 2nd solution would be adding onDelete() behavior:

 Schema::create('projects', function(Blueprint $table){
    // table fields
    $table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();
    $table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade');
 });

This means, if you delete the Parent (User) it will automatically find all of the children (Projects) and delete them one by one for you.

Finally, please note that i am using Parent Children analogy in order to clarify the situation, where this analogy only fits in the One to Many relations.

Please avoid using the analogy when you are surrounded by Databasists to protect yourself from further consequences.