Laravel - Create or Update by defined attributes - mysql

Question

I have this this table:
--Votes--
id: Integer
post_id: Integer
user_id: Integer
positive: Boolean
Now I would like to create a record only if it not exists. It is working until someone wants to click on dislike after he clicked on like(on the other side exactly equivalent).
For example someone likes a post a record will be created with positive=true. Now if the user clicks on the same post but this time on dislike, it will be created another record, but i want that it only updates the existing record.
Is there a simple solution?
Here is my Code to create the record:
$vote = Vote::firstOrCreate(array(
'post_id' => $request->input('post_id'),
'user_id' => Auth::user()->id,
'positive' => $request->input('positive')
));
Note: If someone knows how to do that, maybe he could show me how a deletion would be. For example someone clicks on like two times. The record should be created an deleted.

Answer 1

You can use updateOrCreate method:
public static function updateOrCreate(array $attributes, array $values = array())
{
$instance = static::firstOrNew($attributes);
$instance->fill($values)->save();
return $instance;
}
have a look: https://github.com/laravel/framework/blob/5.0/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Model.php#L605
EDIT:
Example
$attributes = [
'name' => 'Christian',
'email' => 'christian#example.com'
];
$values = [
'name' => 'Christian',
'email' => 'christian#example.com',
'phone' => '123456789'
];
MyModel::updateOrCreate($attributes, $values);
In the example above I will search if in my table I have an entry which match name and email, if it exists I will update the records, otherwise I will insert a new entry with the $values infos