empty array in instance variable - php

Question

im learning about laravel and im following some videos from laracasts, but im having a issue in displaying the data from the controller, i made all right, but still appears me empty array, the instance Card isnt working, here is my code:
Model:
Card.php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Card extends Model
{
//
}
route:
Route::get('cards/{card}', 'CardsController#show');
CardsController:
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Card;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
class CardsController extends Controller
{
public function show(Card $card)
{
return $card;
//$card = Card::find($card);
//return view('cards.show', compact('card'));
}
}

Answer 1

What you are attempting is called "Route Model Binding" and it seems to me that you are using Laravel 5.1 or lower (where route model binding is not implicit).
If you are using Laravel 5.2 or higher that code should just work. https://laravel.com/docs/5.3/routing#route-model-binding
But, if you are in Laravel 5.1 you need to do an additional step: https://laravel.com/docs/5.1/routing#route-model-binding
In the provider class RouteServiceProvider, in the boot method, you need to bind which route name {card} should bind to which Model, in this case Card.
So, you do something like this:
public function boot(Router $router)
{
parent::boot($router);
$router->model('card', \App\Card::class);
}
If you add that, the router will know that when it finds {card} it should get that number and do the Card::findOrFail with the ID automatically and if the model is found it will be passed down to your controller.

Answer 2

First of all, you will need to add the fillable protected property to your Eloquent model! Now, on to the good part.
In your routes file you have
Route::get('cards/{card}', 'CardsController#show');
This code, in a nutshell, will pass the card ID to your show function in your CardsController class. Eg. for this route: https://example.com/cards/5, it will in essence call the function show like this: show(5). In your code, you have that the show parameter is typehinted to be a Card. This is wrong. This is going to be an integer.
Thus, what you really need to do is check whether this ID exists and then pass the relevant information to your view. Something like this:
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Card;
use App\Http\Requests;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
class CardsController extends Controller
{
/**
* Show the relevant card information
*
* #param $card This is the card ID (its an integer)
*/
public function show($card)
{
$card = Card::findOrFail($card);
return view('cards.show')->with(compact('card'));
}
}