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Phyo Thiha
Phyo Thiha

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Including extra meta data with a resource response

#laravel #eloquent #apiresource #metadata

In the previous article, I explained about customizing pagination structure.

Today, I want to show returing a JSON response from the controller method with extra top-level keys along with data and pagination keys using the resource class.

As you may know, there is also an organizational standard or preferred format for JSON API responses. I will stick with a pretty basic format.

Success Response Format 

{ "success": true, "statusCode": 200, "data": [ {}, {} ], "pagination": { "current_page": "", "last_page": "", "per_page": "", "total": "" } }
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A very simple way to return a response from the controller method will be

use App\Http\Resources\UserCollection; use App\Models\User; public function index() { return new UserCollection(User::paginate()); }
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💡Why use resource collection over resource?

If you would like to customize the resource collection response, you may create a dedicated resource to represent the collection

As you have read and followed the previous article, the return format will be

{ "data": [ {}, {} ], "pagination": { "current_page": "", "last_page": "", "per_page": "", "total": "" } }
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If not, the default structure will return

{ "data": [], "links": {}, "meta": {} }
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So how can we achieve the response format described above?

Well, you might have guessed, but

public function index() { return response()->json([ 'success' => true, 'statusCode' => 200, // how should I use the resource collection class here? ], 200); }
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Or you might be going the other way around. Create a new resource collection class and add success and statusCode keys.

Method #1 (Adding Meta Data) 

<?php namespace App\Http\Resources; use Illuminate\Http\Request; use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\ResourceCollection; class UserCollection extends ResourceCollection { public function toArray(Request $request): array { return [ 'success' => true, 'statusCode' => 200, 'data' => $this->collection, ]; } }
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Method #2 (Top Level Meta Data) 

<?php namespace App\Http\Resources; use Illuminate\Http\Request; use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\ResourceCollection; class UserCollection extends ResourceCollection { public function toArray(Request $request): array { return parent::toArray($request); } public function with(Request $request): array { return [ 'success' => true, 'statusCode' => 200, ]; } }
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As you see, success and statusCode sit inside the resource collection class. You already know what kind of approach to use to reduce code duplication.

A cliffhanger: What if I want to create a trait and use it in the controller file?

Happy Tinkering ✌️

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