How to determine where a request is coming from in a REST api

Question

I have an RESTful API with controllers that should return a JSON response when is being hit by my android application and a \"view\" when it\'s being hit by a web browser. I\'m

Answer 1

Note::This is for future viewers

The approach I found convenient is to using a prefix api for api calls. In the route file use

Route::group('prefix'=>'api',function(){
    //handle requests by assigning controller methods here for example
    Route::get('posts', 'Api\Post\PostController@index');
}

In the above approach, I separate controllers for api call and web users. But if you want to use the same controller then laravel Request has a convenient way. You can identify the prefix within your controller.

public function index(Request $request)
{
    if( $request->is('api/*')){
        //write your logic for api call
        $user = $this->getApiUser();
    }else{
        //write your logic for web call
        $user = $this->getWebUser();
    }
}

The is method allows you to verify that the incoming request URI matches a given pattern. You may use the * character as a wildcard when utilizing this method.