Laravel won't obey status code

Question

I just can't understand, and don't know where else to look, as the response status code of the following code is always 200, even if I set it to 400 in the main Response class.

class Api_Controller extends Base_Controller
{

    public function __construct()
    {
          parent::__construct();

          //header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); ##> This works
          //die();

          $test = array('1' => '2');
          die(Response::json($test, 400));
    }

What am I missing? I'm not using any extended class, just the default...

Update

This is the output of the Response::json... above: http://pastebin.com/RGcinSdg

As you can see, the output has the values that has been set... but still for some reason, returns 200

Update2

The output of var_dump(http_response_code()); is always 200

Update3 - Temporary fix

I have activated an extended version of Response::json and add the following line to it

http_response_code($status);

But I would still much like to know why doesn't it does it, the way it should

Solution 1

You can't return responses from controller constructors - it just doesn't fit with the flow of the request lifecycle in Laravel.

There's two ways to do this. You can either:

a) Setup a response filter that handles whatever functionality it is you're trying to achieve or b) Force a controller ACTION to return a response. This would be done like so:

class Api_Controller extends Base_Controller
{
    public $restful = true;

    public function get_index()
    {
        return Response::json($test, 400);
    }
}

It DOES work - you're just doing it incorrectly :)

Solution 2

The same problem happens if you forget the return statement:

Response::json(array(
   'error' => true,
   'msg' => 'Bad request'
), 403);

instead of:

return Response::json(array(
   'error' => true,
   'msg' => 'Bad request'
), 403);

Solution 3

Try the response()->json() syntax.

So, for example, to flag validation error from a custom FormResquest, you can do this:

/**
 * Get validation response for the request.
 *
 * @param  array $messages
 * @return \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response
 */
public function response(array $messages)
{
    return response()->json($messages, 422);
}

Comments

[Tim Lewis]

\Response::json(...) and response()->json(...) are the same thing; one uses a Facade while the other is a function. This does have merit for newer versions of Laravel though, as I think the response() function was introduced in Laravel 5.0 (or similar) and is referenced in the documentation over Facades.