---
title: "Database schema & key types — Reviews for Laravel | Roundly"
description: "The reviews and review_votes tables, their columns and indexes, and how key_type supports UUID and ULID models."
url: https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/reviews-for-laravel/database-schema
language: en
---

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# Database schema & key types

Two tables back the package. reviews — the configured reviews.model’s table — holds reviews and owner responses alike:

| Column | Type | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | bigint | Auto-incrementing primary key. |
| `parent_id` | bigint, nullable | Self-referencing foreign key to the same table — set on owner responses. Cascades on delete once cascade\_review\_responses\_on\_delete has run (null on delete before). |
| `reviewable_type / reviewable_id` | morph, nullable | The subject; id typed by key\_type. |
| `author_type / author_id` | morph, nullable | The author; id typed by key\_type. |
| `rating` | unsigned tinyint, nullable, indexed | null = a text-only review or a response. |
| `status` | string, indexed | pending, approved or rejected; defaults to pending. |
| `verified` | boolean, indexed | Verified purchase / reviewer; defaults to false. |
| `title` | string, nullable | Optional headline. |
| `content` | text, nullable | Optional body — a rating-only review has none. |
| `meta` | jsonb, nullable | Free-form metadata, cast to a Collection; holds rejection\_reason. |
| `helpful_count / unhelpful_count` | unsigned int | Denormalized vote tallies; default 0. |
| `approved_at` | timestamp, nullable | Stamped on approval, cleared on rejection. |
| `created_at / updated_at / deleted_at` | timestamps | Reviews soft-delete. |

A composite index on (reviewable\_type, reviewable\_id, status) serves the per-subject aggregate queries. The rating column is an unsigned tiny integer, so keep max\_rating at 255 or below.

A new Review instance carries the column defaults in memory — pending, unverified, both tallies 0 — so a just-created review or response serialises and compares like a fresh read.

## review\_votes

- review\_id — foreign key to the configured review model’s table, cascading on delete.
- voter\_type / voter\_id — the polymorphic voter, typed by key\_type.
- helpful — true for helpful, false for unhelpful.
- A unique index on (review\_id, voter\_type, voter\_id): one vote per voter per review.

## Key types

Authors, subjects and voters are polymorphic, so any Eloquent model can take part. key\_type types their id columns; the package’s own tables always keep auto-incrementing keys:

| key\_type | Use when your authors, subjects and voters… |
| --- | --- |
| `bigint` | use Laravel’s default auto-incrementing keys (the default) |
| `uuid` | use HasUuids |
| `ulid` | use HasUlids |

All your morph targets must share one key type. Set it before you run the migrations — it is read when they run:

```bash
# Set before you run the migrations — the morph columns are typed from it
REVIEWS_KEY_TYPE=uuid
```

Any other value throws InvalidConfigurationException instead of quietly migrating as bigint.

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