Checking existing record based on two fields - mysql

Question

I am trying to insert some record by checking if certain conditions are met. What I am planning to do is to restrict the users from voting twice daily. I am using email and date as parameters.
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->validate($request, [
'flavour' => 'required|string',
'email' => 'required|email',
'lastname'=> 'required|string',
'firstname' => 'required|string'
]);
$vote = new Vote();
//$currentDate = Carbon::now()->toDateString();
$today = Carbon::now()->format('Y-M-D');
$dup = Vote::where(['email' => $request->email, 'created_at' => $today ])->get();
if (!$dup)
{
$vote->firstname = $request->firstname;
$vote->lastname = $request->lastname;
$vote->email = $request->email;
$vote->flavour = $request->flavour;
$vote->voter_ip = $request->ip();
}
else {
return response()->json([
'message' => 'You have voted today, please wait till another day!'
]);
}
if (auth()->user()->votes()->save($vote))
return response()->json([
'success' => true,
'data' => $vote->toArray()
]);
else
return response()->json([
'success' => false,
'message' => 'Vote could not be added'
], 500);
}
The problem I am encountering now is, it doesn't take any record as it keeps displaying the message "You have voted today, please wait till another day", even if I insert a new email and/or a current user with different emails.

Answer 1

First, I had to create a field in my migration called "voted_at" and rearranged the code to check for the existing record based on the voted_at and email of the user
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->validate($request, [
'flavour' => 'required|string',
'email' => 'required|email',
'lastname'=> 'required|string',
'firstname' => 'required|string'
]);
$today = Carbon::now()->toDateString();
$dup = Vote::where(['email' => $request->email, 'voted_at' => $today ])->exists();
if ($dup){
return response()->json([
'data' => $dup,
'message' => 'You have voted today, please wait till another day!'
]);
}
else {
$vote = new Vote();
$vote->firstname = $request->firstname;
$vote->lastname = $request->lastname;
$vote->email = $request->email;
$vote->flavour = $request->flavour;
$vote->voter_ip = $request->ip();
$vote->voted_at = $today;
if (auth()->user()->votes()->save($vote))
return response()->json([
'success' => true,
'data' => $vote->toArray()
]);
else
return response()->json([
'success' => false,
'message' => 'Vote could not be added'
], 500);
}
}
Thanks