REST API in Laravel when validating the request

these code will help you, working for me.

$response = array('response' => '', 'success'=>false); $validator = Validator::make($request->all(), $rules); if ($validator->fails()) { $response['response'] = $validator->messages(); } else { //process the request } return $response; 

You should probably return errors (which is an instance of Illuminate\Support\MessageBag) and encode that. A MessageBag instance allows you to convert it directly to its JSON representation.

$errors = $validation->errors(); return $errors->toJson(); 

Now not to toot my own horn but I've recently developed a RESTful API package for Laravel which does all of this for you and all you need to do is throw a simple exception. See my dingo/api package and the Wiki on returning errors. Basically, instead of returning the errors you would throw an exception.

throw new Dingo\Api\Exception\StoreResourceFailedException('Could not create a new user.', $validation->errors()); 

It would be represented by the following JSON.

{ "message": "Could not create a new user.", "errors": { "username": ["The username is already in use."] } } 

Laravel provides out of the box a validation method that you can call from your Controller.

if you check the Laravel Controller abstract class you will find it uses a trait called ValidatesRequests

 abstract class Controller extends BaseController { use AuthorizesRequests, DispatchesJobs, ValidatesRequests; } 

So you can use a method $this->validate(Request $request, array $rules); as you long as your controller class extends the Controller

the full method declaration is

public function validate(Request $request, array $rules, array $messages = [], array $customAttributes = []) { $validator = $this->getValidationFactory()->make($request->all(), $rules, $messages, $customAttributes); if ($validator->fails()) { $this->formatValidationErrors($validator); } } 

If The $validator fails, the method will throw an error depending on the request type, if it is ajax (in this case you should include in the request headers (Accept application/json) it will return a JSON response containing the validation errors.

There are many ways to get a validator response first is to get an all validation error at the same time i.e you will get a response like below

 $validator = \Validator::make($request->all(), [ 'username' => 'required|unique:users, username', 'password' => 'required', ]); if ($validator->fails()) { $responseArr = CustomHelper::returnRespArr(""); $responseArr['message'] = $validator->errors();; $responseArr['token'] = ''; return response()->json($responseArr, Response::HTTP_BAD_REQUEST); } 

Response you will get is:

{ "status": false, "data": [], "message": { "username": [ "The username field is required." ], "password": [ "The password field is required." ] }, "is_valid": 0, "token": "" } 

The second way to get a validation response. In this, you will get a one validator error a time.

 if ($validator->fails()) { $responseArr = CustomHelper::returnRespArr(""); $responseArr['message'] = $validator->messages()->first();; $responseArr['token'] = ''; return response()->json($responseArr,Response::HTTP_BAD_REQUEST); } 

The response you will get

{ "status": false, "data": [], "message": "The username field is required.", "is_valid": 0, "token": "" } 

For laravel 5.5 and up, see docs: AJAX Requests & Validation

TL;DR: On failed validation a json response with a 422 is returned along with the validation error messages. It took me a bit of time to find those validation errors in the response object, so to see the error messages if you're using axios, try this in your browser console:

axios.post('/api/your-route-here') .then(response => { console.log(response.data); }).catch(error => { console.log(error.response.data.errors) }); 

I am using Laravel 9.x and found a quite simple way to validate errors with REST APIs:

public function store(Request $request) { $input = $request->all(); $validator = Validator::make($input, [ 'title' => 'required|string|max:50' ]); // Will return an error, if validation fails. // https://laravel.com/api/9.x/Illuminate/Foundation/Validation/ValidatesRequests.html#method_validateWith $this->validateWith($validator, $request); // Only use the properties that were validated. $input = $validator->validated(); // Create a new event model, with the data provided. $event = Event::create($input); return new EventResource($event); } 

In order to return a json error message, make sure to set the Accept header of the client to application/json. I make the mistake to not set this in my debug client, so I only saw html/xml messages.

You can also force the output to json.

 $validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [ 'code' => 'required', ]); if ($validator->fails()) { $errorMessage = $validator->errors()->first(); $response = [ 'status' => false, 'message' => $errorMessage, ]; return response()->json($response, 401); }