Laravel - storing into session from service provider? - php

Question

I am using GeoIP package to get the user's IP and translate it into a zipcode. I don't want to do that for every request that the user is making but rather do a one time IP to zipcode, store it into session and then when I need to use it just check if the zipcode exists inside the session.
I tried to place the code inside AppServiceProvider#boot but it does not work. It is not remembered into the session. I tried inside routes but not working as well.
edit
The code inside boot method of appserviceprovider. This is just a test.
If (! Session()->has ('zipcode'))
Session(['zipcode' => geocodeZipcode()]);
The problem is that this runs everytime since the zipcode is not persisted in the session. The if is never false from my tests so far.
Where do I need to put the code to store the zipcode into the session and have it remembered even if the user is not logged in?
I basically need something like this:
1- User accesses a page on the server for the first time (any page)
2- I get the user IP and translate it to a zipcode
3- I store the zipcode into the session
4- For every other request the user makes I check if the zipcode exists into the session. If not I execute step 2.
5- Use the zipcode for its purpose
Where should I place the step 2 and 3?

Answer 1

In Laravel the session is initialized via middleware, and all the middlewares execute after the service providers boot phase
This is the reason why in your service provider you can't access the session: it has not been initialized yet
You should place your steps 2 and 3 in a middleware:
class ZipCodeMiddleware
{
public function handle( Request $request, Closure $next )
{
//ZIP CODE NOT FOUND IN SESSION: CREATE IT AND STORE
if ( ! Session::has( 'zipcode' ) )
{
//get ip and translate to zip
//store zip in the session
}
//use zip code here or access it later from Session
return $next($request);
}
}
Once you've stored the zip code in the session, you can access it from a controllers directly from the session, or, you could instance a class in the middleware and re-access it later with:
//use zip code here or access it later from Session
$zipClass = new ZipClass( $zipCode );
App::instance( ZipClass::class, $zipClass );
This way you can auto-inject the ZipClass depencency in your controllers and Laravel will give you back the $zipClass instance you built previously in the middleware