laravel-middleware

laravel-middleware

When to use

Use this skill when working with HTTP middleware:

• Creating custom middleware for authentication, logging, headers, etc.
• Configuring middleware groups and priority
• Terminable middleware (post-response processing)
• Route-level and global middleware assignment

Procedure: Create middleware

1. Inspect existing middleware — Read app/Http/Middleware/ and bootstrap/app.php (or app/Http/Kernel.php) to identify naming conventions, aliases, and current group/global registration.
2. Generate class — php artisan make:middleware EnsureCustomerIsActive.
3. Implement logic — Handle request in handle(), return response or pass to next.
4. Register — Add to route group or global middleware stack.
5. Verify — Run tests covering both allowed and blocked request scenarios.

Example

php artisan make:middleware EnsureCustomerIsActive

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

class EnsureCustomerIsActive
{
    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next): Response
    {
        if (!$request->user()?->getCustomer()?->isActive()) {
            abort(403, 'Customer account is inactive.');
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

Before vs. After middleware

// Before middleware — runs BEFORE the request hits the controller
public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next): Response
{
    // Check something before the request
    return $next($request);
}

// After middleware — runs AFTER the controller returns a response
public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next): Response
{
    $response = $next($request);

    // Modify the response
    $response->headers->set('X-Custom-Header', 'value');

    return $response;
}

Terminable middleware

Runs after the response has been sent to the browser:

class LogRequestDuration
{
    private float $startTime;

    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next): Response
    {
        $this->startTime = microtime(true);

        return $next($request);
    }

    public function terminate(Request $request, Response $response): void
    {
        $duration = microtime(true) - $this->startTime;
        Log::info('Request duration', [
            'url' => $request->fullUrl(),
            'duration_ms' => round($duration * 1000, 2),
        ]);
    }
}