Laravel Controller -> API class - php

Question

I'm struggling with how to do this correctly following best practices. It might be difficult to explain but i'll try my best here.
I have an external API I need to make very many different calls to. So what I did was creating a class in the App folder called Api.php for now. It's using Guzzle for API calls.
In the Controller for the view I create the Api object in the needed functions and call the corresponding function in the API class.
Controller
public function uploadDevice(Request $request)
{
## Validation etc is performed
// Calling the API
$api = new Api();
$api->uploadDevice();
}
Api.php
class Api
{
private $token;
public function __construct(){}
public function checkIfHasToken(){}
public function getTokenFromSession(){}
public function getFreshToken(){}
public function uploadDevice(){}
}
Some questions
The checkIfHasToken() needs to be called before every request. Should it be done in the constructor, first in each function doing API calls or directly from the Controller?
Exceptions : Where should I do the Try/catch etc ? Should it be done in the Api class where it's needed or in the Controller by calling each and every function from the API class and wrapping it in try/catch?
Redirects : I want to redirect back to the Route the request came from with every possible errors or success message included. So if I have a try/catch I want to redirect with the result of the catch included. Where to put this logic? Redirecting from the nested function does not seem to work. So then I'm back to calling each and every function in the Api class from the Controller one by one and handle the exceptions/errors/validations separately in the Controller?
Maybe I'm thinking too much about this or making it more complicated than it needs to be. Not sure anymore.

Answer 1

// Controller
public function __construct(ApiService $apiService)
{
$this->api = $apiService;
}
public function uploadDevice(Request $request)
{
// Ensure that the user has a token in a custom HTTP request or in a middleware somewhere
try {
$this->api->uploadDevice();
}
catch (Exception $exception){
return redirect()->back();
//You can include errors from $exception here.
}
}
// Service
class ApiService
{
public function uploadDevice()
{
return 'I did a thing';
}
}
Explaination
Laravel has many ways to do the same thing, it is all about what you need and how you want your application to scale.
Checking if a token is present or valid should be done in a middleware.
A try catch can be anywhere depending on how much you need to see in the exception, normally just in a controller is ok, but you can
do this in many ways. I personally like to make an event listener
for any http error.
Return redirect back from the controller will be fine to always redirect to the place that invoked the controller

Answer 2

The checkIfHasToken() needs to be called before every request. Should
it be done in the constructor, first in each function doing API calls
or directly from the Controller?
If it needs to be called for every request, I suggest making it middleware as it's made for this purpose.
Exceptions : Where should I do the Try/catch etc ? Should it be done
in the Api class where it's needed or in the Controller by calling
each and every function from the API class and wrapping it in
try/catch?
This depends, if you want to be able to control the output when an exception occurs then you probably want it in your controller. If you can program something to do when the exception occurs (return unsuccessful for instance), do it in a lower level (api).
Redirects : I want to redirect back to the Route the request came from
with every possible errors or success message included. So if I have a
try/catch I want to redirect with the result of the catch included.
Where to put this logic? Redirecting from the nested function does not
seem to work. So then I'm back to calling each and every function in
the Api class from the Controller one by one and handle the
exceptions/errors/validations separately in the Controller?
You can go back by returning redirect()->back() as the response, the best way to show errors would to include them somewhere. I suggest using session()->flash() for this. These calls can be made from the try/catch.