Laravel broadcasting channel function won't fire - php

Question

So I'm gonna use laravel broadcasting for a chat app,
I followed Laravel Broadcasting approach,
Uncommented App\Providers\BroadcastServiceProvider
from providers array inside config/app.php
Registered in pusher website, made a channel
and filled the fields below inside .env file with my pusher channel info
PUSHER_APP_ID
PUSHER_APP_KEY
PUSHER_APP_SECRET
PUSHER_APP_CLUSTER
Inside my broadcast.php config file where I set the default driver to pusher, I also added
'options' => [
'cluster' => 'us2',
'encrypted' => true,
],
to pusher array inside connections array based on my channel info in pusher panel
Installed pusher php package on my laravel project using composer require pusher/pusher-php-server "~3.0" command
Here is my event class
<?php
namespace App\Events;
use App\User;
use App\TherapyMessage;
use Illuminate\Broadcasting\Channel;
use Illuminate\Queue\SerializesModels;
use Illuminate\Broadcasting\PrivateChannel;
use Illuminate\Broadcasting\PresenceChannel;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Events\Dispatchable;
use Illuminate\Broadcasting\InteractsWithSockets;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Broadcasting\ShouldBroadcast;
use App\AppLog;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Broadcasting\ShouldBroadcastNow;
class TherapyMessageSent implements ShouldBroadcastNow
{
use Dispatchable, InteractsWithSockets, SerializesModels;
/**
* User that sent the message
*
* #var User
*/
public $user;
/**
* Message details
*
* #var Message
*/
public $message;
/**
* Create a new event instance.
*
* #return void
*/
public function __construct(User $user, TherapyMessage $message)
{
$this->user = $user;
$this->message = $message;
}
/**
* Get the channels the event should broadcast on.
*
* #return Channel|array
*/
public function broadcastOn()
{
$message_id = $this->message->id;
$user = $this->user;
AppLog::create([
'file_name' => __FILE__,
'message' => "broadcast before send with Message ID of $message_id from $user->full_name"
]);
return new PrivateChannel("therapy-chat.$message_id");
}
}
The AppLog is a model that I use for logging inside the project
I tried implementing ShouldBroadcast interface at first but that didn't work either
I also registered my event inside EventServiceProvider.php file and run php artisan event:generate command, here is the EventServiceProvider $listen array:
protected $listen = [
Registered::class => [
SendEmailVerificationNotification::class,
TherapyMessageSent::class
],
];
I also imported the event namespace next to other namespaces inside the file:
use \App\Events\TherapyMessageSent;
Here is the channel that I defined inside routes/channels.php file:
use App\AppLog;
Broadcast::channel('therapy-chat.{message_id}', function ($user, $message_id) {
AppLog::create([
'file_name' => __FILE__,
'message' => "broadcast sending with Message ID of $message_id to $user->full_name"
]);
if (!Auth::check()) return false;
$message = \App\TherapyMessage::find($message_id);
if (!$message) {
AppLog::create([
'file_name' => __FILE__,
'message' => "Message with ID of $message_id Not Found for broadcasting"
]);
return false;
}
$will_send = false;
if ($therapist = $user->therapist) {
$will_send = $therapist->id === $message->therapist_id;
} else if ($patient = $user->patient) {
$will_send = $message->patient_id === $patient->id;
}
if ($will_send) {
AppLog::create([
'file_name' => __FILE__,
'message' => "Message with ID of $message_id broadcasted to $user->full_name"
]);
}
return $will_send;
});
Finally, this is my controller method:
public function sendToTherapist(Request $request) {
$validation = \Validator::make($request->all(), ['message' => 'required']);
if ($validation->fails()) return $this->validationError($validation);
$user = \Auth::user();
$patient = $user->patient;
$therapist = $patient->therapist;
if (!$therapist) return $this->errorWithMessage('Patient does not have Therapist');
$message = \App\TherapyMessage::create([
'patient_id' => $patient->id,
'therapist_id' => $therapist->id,
'type' => TherapyMessageType::TEXT,
'text' => $request->message,
'sender_role' => TherapyMessageSenderRole::PATIENT
]);
broadcast(new TherapyMessageSent($user, $message))->toOthers();
return $this->success(['id' => $message->id]);
}
My controller class extends from BaseController which is a custom controller class with helper methods such as success(), validationError() and errorWithMessage()
As you see in the code above
I filled $user and $message with correct values and the request works without any error
I think the channel method won't even be fired,
as I check the AppLog table when I call broadcast method, only the log inside TherapyMessageSent event broadcastOn function is saved
and even the log that I save at the beginning of channels.php method, isn't saved so I think this method is never executed.
If anyone could help me with the problem, I'd be thankful.