Laravel Form Request

In our Laravel projects, we will talk about the Form Request class that we use to increase the code readability and to perform more complex validation in requests. I’ll tell you through a book project. But first, let’s create routes.

Initially, it must look like this:

<code>

# route / api.phpRoute::group(['prefix' => 'book'], static function () {

Route::post('create', 'BookController@create');

Route::get('list', 'BookController@list');

Route::delete('delete', 'BookController@delete');

Route::put('update', 'BookController@update');

});

</code>

Now we create a Controller via Artisan CLI.

PHP artisan make:controller BookController

then we create our methods, which must look like this:

<code>

# app/Http/Controller/BookController

class BookController extends Controller

{

public function create()

{

}

public function list()

{

}

public function update()

{

}

public function delete()

{

}

}

</code>

first, let’s do a normal validation and then compare our codes. Let’s suppose we have created a book so that the information of the book is as follows.

The title of the book
Explained
Author
Publisher
Price
Number of pages
Publication Year
ISBN Number
Image Link
Language

Now let’s perform a verification and registration simulation based on this information. Now he sees it;

<code>

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Validator;

class BookController extends Controller

{

public function create(Request $request)

{

$validator = Validator::make($request->all(),[

'name' => 'required|string|max:255',

'slug' => 'required|string|max:255',

'description' => 'required|string|max:500',

'writer' => 'required|string|max:100',

'publisher' => 'required|string|max:100',

'price' => 'required|regex:/^\d+(\.\d{1,2})?$/',

'page_number' => 'required|numeric|min:1',

'edition_year' => 'required|numeric',

'isbn' => 'required|numeric|unique:blog,isbn',

'image' => 'required|string|max:255',

'lang' => 'required|string',

]);

if ($validator->fails()) {

return response()->json($validator->errors());

}else{

/**

* Other operations include database registration and so on.

*/

return response()->json('Book created.',200);

}

}

...

</code>

As we have seen, when the controls are very crowded and require more processing, or when we add our validation methods, we need to break down the code into short pieces and manage it from a single place. So let’s get to the main part now. Let’s create a class with Artisan CLI.

php artisan make:request BookCreateRequest

after running it you will see the app / Http / Request folder and the BookCreateRequest file under it. This file should look like this;

<code>

<?php

namespace App\Http\Requests;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;

class BookCreateRequest extends FormRequest

{

/**

* Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.

*

* @return bool

*/

public function authorize()

{

return false;

}

/**

* Get the validation rules that apply to the request.

*

* @return array

*/

public function rules()

{

return [

//

];

}

}

</code>

Let’s talk about the authorize method here. This part allows us to verify the request of the party. If you return “false Buradan as the value

403 return will be transmitted.

403 | This action is unauthorized.

If we wanted to do this in the example above, it would write the validation process into a validation eg.

<code>

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class BookController extends Controller

{

public function create(Request $request)

{

if (Auth::check() && Auth::user()->isAdmin()) {

$validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [

'name' => 'required|string|max:255',

'slug' => 'required|string|max:255',

'description' => 'required|string|max:500',

....

</code>

etc. will be performing such operations. Auth and similar structures I will talk about in other articles, the current part is not here, as you can see is becoming increasingly complex. Best of all, let’s solve this in the new file we created. Let’s do the following in the BookCreateRequest class. First of all, let’s handle the verification part. Our file now looks like this.

<code>

namespace App\Http\Requests;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class BookCreateRequest extends FormRequest

{

/**

* Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.

*

* @return bool

*/

public function authorize() :bool

{

// Verification process

return (Auth::check() && Auth::user()->isAdmin());

}

....

</code>

Now let’s do the other verification process.

<code>

/**

* Get the validation rules that apply to the request.

*

* @return array

*/

public function rules()

{

return [

'name' => 'required|string|max:255',

'slug' => 'required|string|max:255',

'description' => 'required|string|max:500',

'writer' => 'required|string|max:100',

'publisher' => 'required|string|max:100',

'price' => 'required|regex:/^\d+(\.\d{1,2})?$/',

'page_number' => 'required|numeric|min:1',

'edition_year' => 'required|numeric',

'isbn' => 'required|numeric|unique:blog,isbn',

'image' => 'required|string|max:255',

'lang' => 'required|string',

];

}

</code>

after the last uploads, the whole file should look like this.

<code>

<?php


namespace App\Http\Requests;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class BookCreateRequest extends FormRequest

{

/**

* Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.

*

* @return bool

*/

public function authorize() :bool

{

return (Auth::check() && Auth::user()->isAdmin());

}

/**

* Get the validation rules that apply to the request.

*

* @return array

*/

public function rules()

{

return [

'name' => 'required|string|max:255',

'slug' => 'required|string|max:255',

'description' => 'required|string|max:500',

'writer' => 'required|string|max:100',

'publisher' => 'required|string|max:100',

'price' => 'required|regex:/^\d+(\.\d{1,2})?$/',

'page_number' => 'required|numeric|min:1',

'edition_year' => 'required|numeric',

'isbn' => 'required|numeric|unique:blog,isbn',

'image' => 'required|string|max:255',

'lang' => 'required|string',

];

}

}

</code>

so we have separated and managed everything we use for verification, and now let’s use it in the Controller and examine the difference.

<code>

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Http\Requests\BookCreateRequest;

class BookController extends Controller

{

public function create(BookCreateRequest $request)

{

// Database registration and so on.

}

</code>

where we implement Dependency Injection in the create method and specify that it will receive a $ request of type BookCreateRequest. This means that the Request that we create directly runs and verifies that if there is a problem there is a direct return to the clientside and it does not continue to the Controller side (* I will explain the return types and message management in this article in another article) and consequently the Controller remains clean and improves readability. Let’s do a review before and after.

<code>

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;use Illuminate\Http\Request;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Validator;

class BookController extends Controller

{

public function create(Request $request)

{

if (Auth::check() && Auth::user()->isAdmin()) {

$validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [

'name' => 'required|string|max:255',

'slug' => 'required|string|max:255',

'description' => 'required|string|max:500',

'writer' => 'required|string|max:100',

'publisher' => 'required|string|max:100',

'price' => 'required|regex:/^\d+(\.\d{1,2})?$/',

'page_number' => 'required|numeric|min:1',

'edition_year' => 'required|numeric',

'isbn' => 'required|numeric|unique:blog,isbn',

'image' => 'required|string|max:255',

'lang' => 'required|string',

]);

if ($validator->fails()) {

return response()->json($validator->errors());

} else {

/**

* Other operations include database registration and so on.

*/

return response()->json('Book created.', 200);

}

}

}

....

</code>

and after;

<code>

<? php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Http\Requests\BookCreateRequest;

class BookController extends Controller

{

public function create (BookCreateRequest $ request)

{

//Other operations include database registration and so on.

}

....

</code>

the difference can be seen very clearly.

Stay tuned for the next articles: