Laravel: Category Delete Not Working

[FlyAbove]

I am trying to find a way to delete my category that I have created. I get the error attempt to read image is null, I think the error has to do with category_id being null. How can I retrieve it for my category object?

class Index extends Component
{
    use WithPagination;
    protected $paginationTheme = 'bootstrap';

    public $category_id;

    //setting category_id
    public function deleteCategory($category_id)
    {
        $this->category_id = $category_id;
    }

    
    public function destroyCategory() {
        $category = Category::find($this->category_id);
        // dd($this);
        $path = 'uploads/category/'.$category->image;
        if (File::exists($path)) {
            File::delete($path);
        }
        $category->delete();
        session()->flash('message', 'Category Deleted');
        $this->dispatchBrowserEvent('close-modal');
    }

    public function render()
    {
        $categories = Category::orderBy('id', 'DESC')->paginate(10);

        return view('livewire.admin.category.index', ['categories' => $categories]);
    }
}

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by FlyAbove
Make title more specific.