Laravel 5.2 - adding to existing session array overwrites existing session - php

Question

I am attempting to store basket data in a session in Laravel 5 via AJAX but each time I try and push an item to the array stored as the value to 'basket', the existing 'basket' array is overwritten.
Below is my controller method:
public function add(Request $request)
{
$success = false;
if ($request->ajax()) {
$ticket = Ticket::find((int) $request->get('ticket_id'));
if ($ticket) {
if (!$request->session()->has('basket')) {
$request->session()->put('basket', []);
}
$item = [
'attraction.name' => $ticket->attraction->name,
'ticket.quantity' => $request->get('quantity'),
'ticket.price' => $ticket->price,
];
$request->session()->push('basket', [$ticket->id => $item]);
$success = true;
}
}
return response()->json(['success' => $success]);
}
An item is set in the basket session array on the first instance, but I am expecting it to add to this array rather than overwrite when I post more item data over to this method.
The end result I'm looking to achieve is this:
Array
(
[basket] => Array
(
[123] => Array
(
[attraction.name] => Attraction 1
[ticket.quantity] => 2
[ticket.price] => 14.5
)
[456] => Array
(
[attraction.name] => Attraction 2
[ticket.quantity] => 3
[ticket.price] => 12
)
)
)
I've tried using the Session facade equivalent methods, but to no avail :(
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks :)

Answer 1

I had tried array_merge() but again my session was being overwritten. So, after putting my debug hat on yet again, I've found the reason why it was happening.
Session data was not persisting after each request. As my session wasn't being remembered, !$request->session()->has('basket') was always evaluating to true therefore my basket session was being set back to an empty array each time.
I needed to return my request as JSON using the below line in order for my session data to persist. Maybe this is because I have dataType: 'json' as a property in my AJAX call?
return response()->json($request);
I also took your advice and grabbed the basket session array, pushed new data to it and put back into session.
Sorted! Thank you both for your help :)

Answer 2

I experienced a similar issue and discovered that after adding values to the session you need to call
session()->save();