How can I make Laravel return a custom error for a JSON REST API

Question

I'm developing some kind of RESTful API. When some error occurs, I throw an App::abort($code, $message) error.

The problem is: I want him to throw a json formed array with keys "code" and "message", each one containing the above mentioned data.

Array (     [code] => 401     [message] => "Invalid User" ) 

Does any one knows if it's possible, and if it is, how I do it?

Answer 1

go to your app/start/global.php.

This will convert all errors for 401 and 404 to a custom json error instead of the Whoops stacktrace. Add this:

App::error(function(Exception $exception, $code) {     Log::error($exception);      $message = $exception->getMessage();      // switch statements provided in case you need to add     // additional logic for specific error code.     switch ($code) {         case 401:             return Response::json(array(                     'code'      =>  401,                     'message'   =>  $message                 ), 401);         case 404:             $message            = (!$message ? $message = 'the requested resource was not found' : $message);             return Response::json(array(                     'code'      =>  404,                     'message'   =>  $message                 ), 404);             }  }); 

This is one of many options to handle this errors.

---

Making an API it is best to create your own helper like Responser::error(400, 'damn') that extends the Response class.

Somewhat like:

public static function error($code = 400, $message = null) {     // check if $message is object and transforms it into an array     if (is_object($message)) { $message = $message->toArray(); }      switch ($code) {         default:             $code_message = 'error_occured';             break;     }      $data = array(             'code'      => $code,             'message'   => $code_message,             'data'      => $message         );      // return an error     return Response::json($data, $code); } 

Answer 2

You can pass an array to the returned JSON response:

$returnData = array(     'status' => 'error',     'message' => 'An error occurred!' ); return Response::json($returnData, 500);