Laravel API Response Helpers

A simple package allowing for consistent API responses throughout your Laravel application. Originally created to solve issues having with a large legacy project, see the package motivation section.

Requirements

• PHP ^8.2
• Laravel ^11.0, ^12.0 or ^13.0

The package supports actively supported Laravel releases as per the official Laravel Support Policy.

Legacy versions of this package support older PHP / Laravel version, see the legacy section.

Installation / Usage

composer require f9webltd/laravel-api-response-helpers

Simply reference the required trait within your controller:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Api\Controllers;

use F9Web\ApiResponseHelpers;
use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;

class OrdersController
{
    use ApiResponseHelpers;

    public function index(): JsonResponse
    {
        return $this->respondWithSuccess();
    }
}

Optionally, the trait can be imported within a base controller.

Available methods

respondNotFound(string|Exception $message, ?string $key = 'error')

Returns a 404 HTTP status code, an exception object can optionally be passed.

respondWithSuccess(array|Arrayable|JsonSerializable|null $contents = null)

Returns a 200 HTTP status code, optionally $contents to return as json can be passed. By default returns ['success' => true].

respondOk(string $message)

Returns a 200 HTTP status code

respondUnAuthenticated(?string $message = null)

Returns a 401 HTTP status code

respondForbidden(?string $message = null)

Returns a 403 HTTP status code

respondError(?string $message = null)

Returns a 400 HTTP status code

respondCreated(array|Arrayable|JsonSerializable|null $data = null)

Returns a 201 HTTP status code, with response optional data

respondNoContent(array|Arrayable|JsonSerializable|null $data = null)

Returns a 204 HTTP status code, with optional response data. Strictly speaking, the response body should be empty. However, functionality to optionally return data was added to handle legacy projects. Within your own projects, you can simply call the method, omitting parameters, to generate a correct 204 response i.e. return $this->respondNoContent()

public function respondAccepted(array|Arrayable|JsonSerializable|null $data = null)

Returns a 202 HTTP status code, with response optional data

public function respondConflict(?string $message = null)

Returns a 409 HTTP status code, with response optional message. If the message is omitted a default is sent

public function respondTooManyRequests(?string $message = null)

Returns a 429 HTTP status code, with response optional message. If the message is omitted a default is sent

setDefaultSuccessResponse(?array $content = null): self

Optionally, replace the default ['success' => true] response returned by respondWithSuccess with $content. This method can be called from the constructor (to change default for all calls), a base API controller or place when required.

setDefaultSuccessResponse is a fluent method returning $this allows for chained methods calls:

$users = collect([10, 20, 30, 40]);

return $this->setDefaultSuccessResponse([])->respondWithSuccess($users);

Or

public function __construct()
{
    $this->setDefaultSuccessResponse([]);
}

...

$users = collect([10, 20, 30, 40]);

return $this->respondWithSuccess($users);

Use with additional object types

In addition to a plain PHP array, the following data types can be passed to relevant methods:

• Objects implementing the Laravel Illuminate\Contracts\Support\Arrayable contract
• Objects implementing the native PHP JsonSerializable contract

This allows a variety of object types to be passed and converted automatically.

Below are a few common object types that can be passed.

Laravel Collections - Illuminate\Support\Collection

$users = collect([10, 20, 30, 40]);

return $this->respondWithSuccess($users);

Laravel Eloquent Collections - Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection

$invoices = Invoice::pending()->get();

return $this->respondWithSuccess($invoices);

Laravel API Resources - Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource

This package is intended to be used alongside Laravel's API resources and in no way replaces them.

$resource = PostResource::make($post);

return $this->respondCreated($resource);

Legacy Support

For PHP ^7.4 and Laravel ^6.0 / ^7.0 support, use package version ^1.5.

For PHP ^8.0 with Laravel ^8.0, ^9.0 and ^10.0 support use package version ^2.1.1.

Motivation

Ensure consistent JSON API responses throughout an application. The motivation was primarily based on a very old inherited Laravel project. The project contained a plethora of methods/structures used to return an error:

• response()->json(['error' => $error], 400)
• response()->json(['data' => ['error' => $error], 400)
• response()->json(['message' => $error], Response::HTTP_BAD_REQUEST)
• response()->json([$error], 400)
• etc.

I wanted to add a simple trait that kept this consistent, in this case:

$this->respondError('Ouch')

Upgrading

Please see UPGRADING for details.

Contribution

Any ideas are welcome. Feel free to submit any issues or pull requests.

Testing

composer test

Security

If you discover any security related issues, please email rob@f9web.co.uk instead of using the issue tracker.

Credits

• Rob Allport for F9 Web Ltd.
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.