How to correctly return a JSON Response in Laravel?

Question

    return response()->json([
        'message' => 'No new orders!'
    ]);

Unfortunately, this response is not working? Ideally, I'd like to return a JSON response with 'Message' => 'No new orders!' with a status code 204 No Content.

I have these 2 included files in the controller...

use OhMyBrew\BasicShopifyAPI;
use GuzzleHttp\Client;

This utilizes this built-in helper from vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/foundation/helpers.php

if (! function_exists('response')) {
    /**
     * Return a new response from the application.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\View\View|string|array|null  $content
     * @param  int     $status
     * @param  array   $headers
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response|\Illuminate\Contracts\Routing\ResponseFactory
     */
    function response($content = '', $status = 200, array $headers = [])
    {
        $factory = app(ResponseFactory::class);

        if (func_num_args() === 0) {
            return $factory;
        }

        return $factory->make($content, $status, $headers);
    }
}

Solution 1

To return data as json.. just do this:

public function myCoolFunction()
{
    $data = ['message' => 'No new orders!'];

    return response()->json($data, 204);
}

From the documentation:

JSON Responses

The json method will automatically set the Content-Type header to application/json, as well as convert the given array to JSON using the json_encode PHP function:

return response()->json([
    'name' => 'Abigail',
    'state' => 'CA'
]);

PS: The default response code returned is 200, so, in case you want to return a 200 response code, you could omit the second param.

---

Notice that, in order to also receive error details in json format, it'll help that your front-end make the request telling your backend that it expects a json response. To do this, add this header when making requests:

accept: application/json

More info

Solution 2

The thing is content won't work when you use code 204. As you wrote status 204 means no content so if you put any content it won't be used.

So if you need to return content from your response, you need to use other status code (for example 200).

However:

 return response()->json([
        'message' => 'No new orders!'
    ]);

should work without any problem because status 200 is used here so if it doesn't work remove vendor directory and run again composer install because maybe you made some changes in vendor directory by accident. Also you should verify log file stored in storage/logs directory to verify the real problem.

Comments

[Kamlesh]

Getting error Target [Illuminate\Contracts\Routing\ResponseFactory] is not instantiable

[Kamlesh]

Can we use response()->json(....) in controller's constructor? I have tried but it does not work. Any suggestion. Thanks a lot.