Trying to get property author of non-object error, how to fix it?

Question

Have tried to follow this tutorial Laravel show last reply left on post , was working but now returns on some threads with this error here

Trying to get property 'author' of non-object (View: /var/www/html/web/resources/views/forums/board.blade.php)

This is my code used:

  <h1>{{$board->name}}</h1>
  @auth
  <a role="button" href="{{route('forums.thread.create', $board->id)}}" class="btn btn-primary">Create Thread</a>
  @endauth

  @foreach($board->threads->sortByDesc('pinned') as $thread)
  <div class="thread-box {{$thread->pinned ? '' : 'bg-light'}} p-3 mt-3" style="background-color: #eee;">
    <a href="{{route('forums.thread.show', $thread->id)}}" class="text-decoration-none">
      <img src="{{$thread->author->avatar}}" alt="User Avatar" style="max-height: 40px;" class="rounded-circle">
      <span>
        {{$thread->name}}
      </span>
    </a>
    @if(!$thread->pinned)
    @else
    <div class=" d-inline lock">
      <i class="fas fa-thumbtack"></i>
    </div>
    @endif
    @if(!$thread->locked)
    @else
    <div class=" d-inline lock">
      <i class="fas fa-lock"></i>
    </div>
    @endif
    <hr>
    @if($thread->replies)<p>Last Update: <img src="{{$thread->replies->sortBydesc('id')->first()->author->avatar}}" alt="User Avatar" style="max-height: 40px;" class="rounded-circle"> <b>{{$thread->replies->sortBydesc('id')->first()->author->username}}</b></p>@else<p>No New Activity</p>@endif
  </div>
  @endforeach
</div>
@endsection

Was working before like I said, but does not seem to work anymore. Any ideas?

Answer 1

$thread->replies->sortBydesc('id')->first() is somehow not returning the latest reply you're looking for, even though you already check for $thread->replies in the if statement. I would debug why the latest reply for the thread can't be retrieved, or just add another condition in the if statement to check for that as well.

@if($thread->replies && $thread->replies->sortBydesc('id')->first())
  <p>Last Update:
    <img src="{{$thread->replies->sortBydesc('id')->first()->author->avatar}}"
      alt="User Avatar" style="max-height: 40px;" class="rounded-circle">
    <b>{{$thread->replies->sortBydesc('id')->first()->author->username}}</b> 
  </p>
@else
  <p>No New Activity</p>
@endif