Laravel (Request $request) handling how to check if input is in the correct json format?

Question

So I'm building an api that accepts json input, and catching it in the controller with Request:

{
    "val1": "11",
    "val2": "1000",
    "val3": "1001010",
    "val4": "1001"
}

However I need to catch a condition when the user didn't use proper json, say like this:

{
    "val1": "11",
    "val2": "1000",
    "val3": "1001010"
    "val4": "1001"
}

When I return $request on wrong input format, I got empty array. However I have tried using isset(), empty(), count() on request but it still didn't check the parameters.

public function foo(Request $request)
{
   if(jsoniswrong($request)){return 'false';}
}

I need a way to check the request variable without having to call each values, how do I do this?

edit: I ended up using this which is simpler. I just realized in Laravel, empty($request) will never return true because even on a bad request it still have objects other than the actual input data. To get the input data, use all(). This solved my problem.

    if(empty($request->all())){
        return false;
    }

Possible duplicate of [Fastest way to check if a string is JSON in PHP?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6041741/fastest-way-to-check-if-a-string-is-json-in-php) — thisiskelvin, Sep 19 '18 at 08:54
@thisiskelvin in my case, inside the function, $request is already converted as an object. — Rizki Hadiaturrasyid, Sep 19 '18 at 09:03
Thank you for clarifying. by the way, I can't see the difference between the valid and invalid json you have posted in your question. — thisiskelvin, Sep 19 '18 at 09:05
@thisiskelvin the 'invalid' one is missing commas, and in the controller this will be treated as no input. The tricky part is the values are optional since the values are nullable. Now I need to know whether a request is actually empty or in the wrong format. — Rizki Hadiaturrasyid, Sep 19 '18 at 09:09

thisiskelvin · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-19T09:17:23.010

You may validate an incoming request for json using the validate() method. You can achieve this by doing the following:

public function foo(Request $request)
{
    $data = $request->validate([
        'json' => 'required|json'
    ]);

    // continue process
}

Here, we use the required rule to make sure that the json has been passed. We then use the json rule which checks if valid json has been passed. A | is used to separate validation rules.

If the json is not valid, data about the error will be returned.

Please note, you must name the field/key of the incoming json data the same as the key within the validate() array. e.g. if the field/key is called data it must be ['data' => 'required|json'].

Laravel (Request $request) handling how to check if input is in the correct json format?

1 Answers1