laravel validator for rest api

Question

I am trying to follow best practice for REST api on CRUD.

GET: users/ -> all
GET: users/:id -> one specific user.
POST: users/  -> add one
PUT: users/:id -> update specific user.
DELETE: users/:id -> delete one user.

On laravel 8 I want to validate the url :id using the validator, so I have like this on delete user:

$validator = Validator::make(['id' => $request->id], [
    'id' => 'exists:users,id,deleted_at,NULL',
]);

And this way to update a user:

$validator = Validator::make(array_merge($request->all(), ['id' => $request->id]), [
    'id' => 'required|exists:users,id,deleted_at,NULL',
    'name' => 'required',
    'surname' => 'required',
    'email' => 'required|email:rfc,dns'
]);

As you can see I have to put the id on an array and/or merge with the $request->all() . There is any way in laravel to do this with the request?

I have found 3 ways by Laravel:

$request->add(['variable' => 'value']);
$request->merge(["key"=>"value"]);
$request->request->set(key, value);

But a solution for adding route params to the request before hitting the controller method would be even great.

Answer 1

You can update the request object on the fly and add the ID field, before you validate it, something like

$request['id'] = $id;
// note: the $id is your function's parameter name

$validator = Validator::make(array_merge($request->all()), [
    'id' => 'required|exists:users,id,deleted_at,NULL',
    'name' => 'required',
    'surname' => 'required',
    'email' => 'required|email:rfc,dns'
]);

Answer 2

You can do it like you are doing, but doing it with route model binding would be the way to go.

Now when you want to update a user by sending a PUT to /users/:id , and the user does not exist you will get a 422 . But what you really want would be a 404 .

With route model binding, Laravel will check if the model exists for you and abort with a 404 when it does not.

If route model binding is not an option, you can also just not validate the id with the validator and retrieve the user with User::findOrFail($request->input('id')) , the framework will then still abort with a 404 if it can't be found.