laravel 5.5: how can I call route in controller?

Question

In web.php I have this route which opens a form:

$this->namespace('Users')->prefix('users')->group(function (){
    $this->get('/create' , 'UserController@create');
});

And this route returns an array of countries. I use that array to fill a select box via ajax in the form.

Route::namespace('API')->prefix('api')->group(function () {
    $this->get('/get-country-list', 'LocationsController@index');
});

Controller:

app\\Http\\Controllers\\API\\LocationsController

class LocationsController extends Controller
{
  public function index()
  {
      return DB::table('countries')->pluck("name","id")->all();
  }
  ...

app\\Http\\Controllers\\Users\\UserController

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function create()
    {
        return view('panel.users.home.create.show');
    }
    ...

How can I call LocationsController@index in create() function? what is the best method?

Answer 1

you can try return redirect(route('...')); instead of return view() in actions.

update

Because you just want to get Countries list instead of redirection. So do small tuning, separate the data manipulating function from the action function :

protected function getCountries() {
   return DB::table('countries')->pluck("name","id")->all();
}

function index(Request $request) {
  return $this->getCountries();
}

function create(Request $request) {
  $countries = $this->getCountries();
  return view('panel.users.home.create.show', compact('countries'));
}

Answer 2

I think you should try a different approach. What you seem to be trying to do is reuse this cumbersome query:

DB::table('countries')->pluck('name', 'id')->all();

That's good! However your index() function is a controller endpoint and which returns a response and isn't really suitable for being reused in other controller endpoints. When I am in a similar situation I usually do one of two things,

1. Extract the code to a protected method and use it in both controller endpoint methods

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return $this->countryNames();
    }

    public function create()
    {
        // $countryNames = $this->countryNames():

        return view('panel.users.home.create.show');
    }

    public function countryNames()
    {
        return DB::table('countries')->pluck('name', 'id')->all();
    }
}

2. Create a method on the model, in your case this would involve using the model instead of the DB facade.

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return Country::names();
    }

    public function create()
    {
        // $countryNames = Country::names();

        return view('panel.users.home.create.show');
    }
}