Not able to make a User with the same username that I deleted

Question

Laravel + MongoDB

This is my Store() method in UserController:

       public function store()
        {
            $userData = request()->get('user', []);
            .
            . 
            //Checking if credentials satisfied
            .
            .
    
            try
            {
                $user = User::create($userData);
            }
            catch(BulkWriteException $ex)
            {
                abort(409, trans('errors.EXISTS_USERNAME'));
            }
            catch(Exception $e)
            {
                abort(409, trans('errors.EXISTS_USERNAME'));
            }
            return [
                'status' => 'success',
                'result' => $user,
            ];
        }

Close up to the Create() method in the above Code:

    public static function create($parameters)
    {
        return static::query()->create($parameters);
    }

Close up to the Create() method in the above Code:

  public function create(array $attributes = [])
    {
        return tap($this->newModelInstance($attributes), function ($instance) {
            $instance->save();
        });
    }

So the problem is When I delete a User for example with username: "X" I can't make a new User with username: "X" and it gives the error u see in the exception.

The deletion method is soft-delete which means the user not completely deleted from DB it just gives the user deleted_at property so laravel will understand that act to this user like a deleted user which means when I use a query like User::where('username',"X")->get() it won't show me any result which means the data is deleted.

so here's the deal, I can't understand why it throws me exception about Existing Username while laravel can't see the user as a data.

What I want to do is fixing this issue without using force-delete and with only using soft-delete

Answer 1

You note that your username is a unique field.

You are using Laravel soft-deletes.

This means that Laravel keeps the record in the database, and places a non-null value inside deleted_at within your users table.

Because the data is not deleted from the database, the database cannot create a new record with the same name "X", because that record "X" already exists -- it just appears deleted to Laravel due to the soft delete.

If you want the protection of a unique user name, this is not a problem: it is working correctly by preventing you from duplicating a username against ALL users ever, even those you have had to delete. You may need to keep the user data over time (thus the soft-delete), and this would successfully prevent you from duplicating even an old 'removed' user. If you don't want this protection, remove the unique field from the username.