Accessing the user object in a base controller in Laravel 7? - laravel

Question

I have a base controller:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\Access\AuthorizesRequests;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Bus\DispatchesJobs;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Validation\ValidatesRequests;
use Illuminate\Routing\Controller as BaseController;
use Auth;
class Controller extends BaseController
{
use AuthorizesRequests, DispatchesJobs, ValidatesRequests;
public function __construct()
{
$user = Auth::user();
if (!empty($user))
{
$uid = $user->id;
DB::table("users")
->where("id", $uid)
->update(array(
'last_time_page_accessed' => time(),
));
}
}
}
The problem is, even if I am logged in, it doesn't reach the $uid = $user->id part, because the $user object is always empty.
This is how I call it from the main controller:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Redirect;
use Auth;
use DB;
use App\Files;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Session;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
class ChatController extends Controller
{
public function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
$this->middleware('auth');
}
}
What am i missing? Why can't it access it?
UPDATE
I tried switching these, and it also didn't work:
public function __construct()
{
$this->middleware('auth');
parent::__construct();
}

Answer 1

As apokryfos pointed out, the authenticated user is not yet available when the controller is constructed, so auth()->user() will always be null.
What you're trying to do is a perfect use case for Middleware.
You can use something like this. If you want this code to run for every route, you may register your Middleware as global Middleware for every web route.
<?php
namespace App\Http\Middleware;
use Closure;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
class StoreLastTimeUserAccessedPage
{
/**
* Handle an incoming request.
*
* #param \Illuminate\Http\Request $request
* #param \Closure $next
* #param string|null $guard
* #return mixed
*/
public function handle($request, Closure $next, $guard = null)
{
if ($user = Auth::user()) {
$user->update([
'last_time_page_accessed' => time()
]);
}
return $next($request);
}
}