Form Requests and Validation

Promote validation and authorization to dedicated Form Request classes. Keep controllers focused on orchestration and domain intents.

Commands

# Create a request
sail artisan make:request UpdateProfileRequest      # or: php artisan make:request UpdateProfileRequest

# Use in controller method signature
public function update(UpdateProfileRequest $request) {
    $data = $request->validated();
    // ...
}

Patterns

• Define authorize() to gate access; prefer Policies for complex checks
• Use rule objects: Rule::unique('users', 'email')->ignore($user->id)
• Validate nested arrays: items.*.sku, addresses.home.city
• Prefer nullable + specific rules instead of sometimes for optional fields
• Standardize attribute names / messages via attributes() and messages()
• Centralize common rules in custom Rule classes or traits
• Return $request->safe()->only([...]) when partial updates are intended

Laravel 13+

// Strict mode: reject undeclared input fields
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Attributes\FailOnUnknownFields;

#[FailOnUnknownFields]
class StoreUserRequest extends FormRequest { /* ... */ }

// Or globally (AppServiceProvider) — strict in non-production
FormRequest::failOnUnknownFields(! app()->isProduction());

// Validate arbitrary JSON payloads against a schema
use Illuminate\JsonSchema\Types\Type;

$request->validate([
    'data' => [Rule::jsonSchema(Type::object([
        'name' => Type::string()->required(),
        'age'  => Type::integer()->min(0),
    ]))],
]);

// Typed enum handling for optional input
$request->whenFilledEnum('status', Status::class, fn (Status $status) => /* ... */);

• Enable strict mode in dev/CI to catch typos and payload drift early; keep production lenient unless the API contract is strict

Testing

• Feature test the endpoint: assert validation errors and success flows
• Unit test custom validators and rule objects in isolation