Validating a Unique Slug on Update in Laravel 5

Question

I currently have a model that has a text field and a slug field.

I validate that the slug is unique in my form request class:

public function rules()
{
    return [
        'name' => 'required|min:3',
        'slug' => 'required|alpha_dash|unique:questions'
    ];
}

This works fine on create and properly denies the creation of duplicate slugs. However on my update method, it won't let me save a record because the slug already exists. Of course the slug does exist, but it exists on the record being edited, so I would like to continue to allow it to be saved. However, it should not be able to be changed to a slug on ANOTHER record.

Here's what my update ArticlesController method looks like:

public function update(Article $article, ArticleRequest $request)
{
    $article->update($request->all());

    return redirect('articles');
}

Is there a way to make this work in L5?

Answer 1

Try to modify your rule like following(in form request class):

public function rules()
{
    return [
      'name'  => 'required,min:3',
      'slug'  => 'required|alpha_dash|unique:categories,slug,'.$this->id')
    ];
}

It works for me.

Answer 2

In unique rule you may specify id you want to ignore.

You can create 2 separate request (one for create and one for update), but you can do it also this way checking if if is set(I assume your update url looks like /questions/2 ):

public function rules()
{
    $rules = [
        'name' => 'required|min:3',
        'slug' => ['required', 'alpha_dash']
    ];

    $rule = 'unique:questions';

    $segments = $this->segments();
    $id = intval(end($segments));
    if ($id != 0) {  
         $rule .= ',slug,' . $id;
    }
    $rules['slug'][] = $rule;

    return $rules;
    }
}