Custom Soft Delete Column

You can try using the eloquent deleting event. Tested with Laravel 4.2.16.

A test model example,

class TestModel extends \Eloquent {

    // enable soft deleting
    use SoftDeletingTrait;

    // set table name
    protected $table = "TestModel";

    // adjust boot function
    public static function boot()
    {
        // run parent
        parent::boot();

        // add in custom deleting
        static::deleting(function($model)
        {
            // save custom delete value
            $model->deleted = 1;
            $model->save();
        });
    }
}

Because this still uses the deleted_at column, once records are marked as deleted future queries to the database with eloquent models will ignore them - if you don't have the ->withTrashed() as part of the query.

Also, since this is using the soft delete ability you can undelete records. However, I'm not finding a event to tie on too for restoring a soft-deleted record. Might be able to use the updating event and just check the fields for the deleted_at being set to null, and update the deleted to 0 at that time. Otherwise this could lead to records being marked with deleted=1 and the deleted_at timestamp equaling null. That is if you need to undelete a record.

Hope that helps.

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