Write function in laravel which needs to execute before any controller - laravel-4

Question

Hi i am doing a website in laravel.
I am trying to do like a function that needs to execute before any controller.
Example :
I have function like
function xyz(){
//do code here
}
This function need to execute when user on site by refreshing page or doing some ajax requst.
I am aware with the codeigniter there is a way to do this using hook
$hook['pre_controller'] = array(
'class' => 'MyClass',
'function' => 'Myfunction',
'filename' => 'Myclass.php',
'filepath' => 'hooks',
'params' => array('beer', 'wine', 'snacks')
);
What is the way in laravel to do this ?

Answer 1

You can use Laravel Middleware to achieve this. The middleware can be registered as global for all controllers / routes, and will let you execute that function (or you can register it for subset of routes by using router groups).
Example:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Middleware;
use Closure;
class MyMiddleware
{
/**
* Handle an incoming request.
*
* #param \Illuminate\Http\Request $request
* #param \Closure $next
* #return mixed
*/
public function handle($request, Closure $next)
{
// call your function
$this->xyz();
return $next($request);
}
public function xyz()
{
// do something
}
}
See the Laravel documentation on Middleware.

Answer 2

For that, you need to declare the function in the public construct part of your controller. For example, if you had a Controller for all pages as follows and you need to check if a user is above a certain age.
class PageController extends Controller
{
public function __construct()
{
Run this function for every function in controller
$this->middleware('age');
}
public function index()
{
//my public static page
}
}
Create a middleware with the artisan command
php artisan make:middleware AgeMiddleware
in your AgeMiddleware, you can have a function as follows.
class AgeMiddleware
{
/**
* Run the request filter.
*
* #param \Illuminate\Http\Request $request
* #param \Closure $next
* #return mixed
*/
public function handle($request, Closure $next)
{
if ($request->input('age') <= 200) {
//Do whatever you want, in this case I redirect home
return redirect('home');
}
return $next($request);
}
}