REST principle of PUT method in Laravel - php

Question

I am preparing a common and current CRUD-type REST API with the users model that laravel brings by default
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Laravel\Sanctum\HasApiTokens;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\MustVerifyEmail;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Auth\Passwords\CanResetPassword;
class User extends Authenticatable implements MustVerifyEmail {
use HasApiTokens, HasFactory, Notifiable, CanResetPassword;
/**
* The attributes that are mass assignable.
*
* #var string[]
*/
protected $fillable = [
'name',
'email',
'password'
];
/**
* The attributes that should be hidden for serialization.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $hidden = [
'password',
'remember_token',
];
/**
* The attributes that should be cast.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $casts = [
'email_verified_at' => 'datetime'
];
}
and the routes I generate with Route::apiResource
Route::apiResource('users', UserController);
Since I want to find the user by the email or the id I make a link or explicit injection of the route parameter in the RouteServiceProvider inside the method boot with Route::bind
Route::bind('user', function($userId){
$user = User::where(fn($query) => $query->where('id', $userId)->orWhere('email', $userId))->first();
if(request()->method() === 'PUT') return $user;
return $userId;
});
This is where the main topic comes in, this method (Route::bind ()) should return the instance of a class, if not, it will return an ExceptionModelNotFound 404 - not found, but I would like to be able to receive the null in my controller and thus validate depending on the method (PUT or PATCH) whether to create the new record (which according to REST principles should be able to do a resource if there is no match) or just update an existing one.
My update method of UserController is as follows
public function update(Request $request, User $user){
$input = $request->all();
$method = $request->method();
if($method === 'PUT') $request->validate($this->rules);
$update = [
'PUT' => fn() => ($user) ? $user->update($input) : $user = $user::create($input),
'PATCH' => function() use($user, $input){
foreach ($input as $key => $val){
$user->$key = (!empty($val)) ? $val : $user->$key;
}
$user->save();
return $user;
}
];
return response()->json($update[$method]());
}
Previously I had it without model injection and the method ùpdate worked, something like this
public function update(Request $request, $user){
But due to the explicit injection this no longer takes the parameter, besides that I am only interested in this behavior when updating since this in the rest of the methods helps in the reduction of code and it is fine to handle the 404 - Not found.
I don't know if I'm failing at something or maybe laravel provides a better way to do it which I don't know.
Thanks in advance.
PS: The code is a bit abstracted, it looks a bit messy because I tried to simplify it.

Answer 1

You are not making it easier on yourself by creating a single controller action for both updating and creating users. I have never done it this way, and always define the REST routes like so:
PUT /user/1 = UPDATE
POST /user = CREATE
You should know on the frontend whether you are making a new user or updating an existing one (simply check for an id element for instance).
Also, your current route bind is not the best logic, since that $user query is always executed, even when it is not a PUT request. Nevertheless that code can be simplified much further if you just firstOrFail() that user since you should be separating the functionality into 2 routes anyway.
Personally I never use PATCH, since my PUT routes allow partial updates as well (e.g. only sending an email property update).