Controller with Middleware and return response in the controller not working in Laravel 5.1

Question

I am programming a Laravel 5.1 RestFUL API, but I have a very strange problem with the middleware and the controller response (is empty always).

Routes:

Route::group(['prefix' => 'api/v1', 'middleware' => 'token.api'], function () {

    Route::post('game/add/{id}', 'GameController@addGameToUser');    
});

The middleware is defined in the kernel.php correctly:

protected $routeMiddleware = [
        'auth' => \App\Http\Middleware\Authenticate::class,
        'auth.basic' => \Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\AuthenticateWithBasicAuth::class,
        'guest' => \App\Http\Middleware\RedirectIfAuthenticated::class,
        'token.api' => \App\Http\Middleware\TokenMiddleware::class,
    ];

I have removed

\App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class

from the middlewares globals, because I just use AJAX API calls. ,

In my middleware, I check just I have a Token header param:

Middleware Code:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;
use Closure;

class TokenMiddleware
{
    /**
     * Handle an incoming request.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @param  \Closure  $next
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {

        header('Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *');
        header('Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, POST, OPTIONS');
        header('Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Origin, Content-Type, Token, Accept, Authorization, X-Request-With');
        header('Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true');


        $token = $request->header('Token');

        if($token == null)
            return response('Not valid token provider.', 401);

        else
        {
            $next($request);
        }



    }
}

In my controller (GameController), and in the method addGameToUser, I just return a JSON Test value, but the response is always empty (testing with postman). If I remove the middleware from the controller, all works fine... I have no idea why...

Controller Code:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;



use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use App\UserGame;

class GameController extends Controller
{
    public function addGameToUser(Request $request, $idGame)
    {
        return response()->json(['status'=>'ok','data'=>'data_example'], 200);
    }

}

Thank you so much!!

Solution 1

You're not returning anything in handle() if $token isn't null. Try this:

public function handle($request, Closure $next)
{

    header('Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *');
    ...

    $token = $request->header('Token');

    if($token == null) return response('Not valid token provider.', 401);

    // return the $next closure, so other Middlewares can run
    return $next($request);
}

Solution 2

You forgot to return the response. just add return as below.

return $next($request);

Hope this help.