Laravel 5.3 - Internal redirect or modify request middleware

Question

I am building an API with Laravel 5.3. I have routes such as /users/1, users/1/teams etc.

I'd like client applications to also be able to use URIs like /users/self, /users/self/teams.

I was looking into building a middleware that checks to see if /self/ is in the request URI and if it is, then change /self/ to the user's actual id, or do an internal redirect to the requested endpoint.

Any ideas on how I could do this?

Answer 1

Create middleware and use it:

1) create middleware:

file: app/Http/Middleware/ReplaceSelfToId.php

<?php namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class ReplaceSelfToId
{

    /**
     * Handle an incoming request.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request $request
     * @param  \Closure $next
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
    {
        if($request->route('id') == 'self') { // if id is self
          if(!$request->user()) { // but user not instantiated
            return redirect()->route('auth'); // redirect to auth
          }
          $request->route()->setParameter('id',  $request->user()->id); // replace id to user's id
        }   
        return $next($request);
    }
}

2) register middleware in Kernel.php:

<?php

namespace App\Http;

use App\Http\Middleware\ReplaceSelfToId; // use middleware
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Kernel as HttpKernel;

class Kernel extends HttpKernel
{
    /**
     * The application's global HTTP middleware stack.
     *
     * These middleware are run during every request to your application.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $middleware = [
        \Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\CheckForMaintenanceMode::class,
        \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class,
        \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse::class,
        \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class,
        \Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class,
        ReplaceSelfToId::class   // add this line to end of array (cuz have to get session initialized)
    ];

    /**
     * The application's route middleware groups.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $middlewareGroups = [];

    /**
     * The application's route middleware.
     *
     * These middleware may be assigned to groups or used individually.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $routeMiddleware = [];
}