Created Request using die() also dies the Request caller - php

Question

I don't know if it's the right terms to employ...
I made an API, in which the answer is sent by the die() function, to avoid some more useless calculations and/or functions calls.
example :
if (isset($authorize->refusalReason)) {
die ($this->api_return(true, [
'resultCode' => $authorize->resultCode,
'reason' => $authorize->refusalReason
]
));
}
// api_return method:
protected function api_return($error, $params = []) {
$time = (new DateTime())->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$params = (array) $params;
$params = ['error' => $error, 'date_time' => $time] + $params;
return (Response::json($params)->sendHeaders()->getContent());
}
But my website is based on this API, so I made a function to create a Request and return the contents of it, based on its URI, method, params, and headers:
protected function get_route_contents($uri, $type, $params = [], $headers = []) {
$request = Request::create($uri, $type, $params);
if (Auth::user()->check()) {
$request->headers->set('S-token', Auth::user()->get()->Key);
}
foreach ($headers as $key => $header) {
$request->headers->set($key, $header);
}
// things to merge the Inputs into the new request.
$originalInput = Request::input();
Request::replace($request->input());
$response = Route::dispatch($request);
Request::replace($originalInput);
$response = json_decode($response->getContent());
// This header cancels the one there is in api_return. sendHeaders() makes Content-Type: application/json
header('Content-Type: text/html');
return $response;
}
But now when I'm trying to call an API function, The request in the API dies but dies also my current Request.
public function postCard($token) {
$auth = $this->get_route_contents("/api/v2/booking/payment/card/authorize/$token", 'POST', Input::all());
// the code below is not executed since the API request uses die()
if ($auth->error === false) {
return Redirect::route('appts')->with(['success' => trans('messages.booked_ok')]);
}
return Redirect::back()->with(['error' => $auth->reason]);
}
Do you know if I can handle it better than this ? Any suggestion of how I should turn my code into ?
I know I could just use returns, but I was always wondering if there were any other solutions. I mean, I want to be better, so I wouldn't ask this question if I knew for sure that the only way of doing what I want is using returns.

Answer 1

So it seems that you are calling an API endpoint through your code as if it is coming from the browser(client) and I am assuming that your Route:dispatch is not making any external request(like curl etc)
Now There can be various approaches to handle this:
If you function get_route_contents is going to handle all the requests, then you need to remove the die from your endpoints and simply make them return the data(instead of echoing). Your this "handler" will take care of response.
Make your Endpoint function to have an optional parameter(or some property set in the $request variable), which will tell the function that this is an internal request and data should be returned, when the request comes directly from a browser(client) you can do echo
Make an external call your code using curl etc(only do this if there is no other option)