Laravel 5: Retrieve JSON array from $request - laravel-5

Question

I'm a Laravel newbie and I'm converting a php/jquery app to Laravel. The original code used a JSON array with an ajax POST, which was retrieved like this:
$json = file_get_contents('php://input');
$data = json_decode($json,true);
I'm doing much the same thing on the POST side, but I don't see any data coming through in my Laravel $request collection. Is there something special that I need to do to retrieve JSON data structured like this:
[
{ "name": "John", "location": "Boston" },
{ "name": "Dave", "location": "Lancaster" }
]
Here is my jQuery ajax POST code (with hard coded data)
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/people",
data: '[{ "name": "John", "location": "Boston" }, { "name": "Dave", "location": "Lancaster" }]',
dataType: "json",
success:function(data) {
$('#save_message').html(data.message);
}
});
Here is the code in my Controller that receives the POST
public function store(Request $request)
{
dd($request->all());
}
But all I get is:
[]
Any ideas on how I can retreive my data?

Answer 1

You need to change your Ajax call to
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/people",
data: '[{ "name": "John", "location": "Boston" }, { "name": "Dave", "location": "Lancaster" }]',
contentType: "json",
processData: false,
success:function(data) {
$('#save_message').html(data.message);
}
});
change the dataType to contentType and add the processData option.
To retrieve the JSON payload from your controller, use:
dd(json_decode($request->getContent(), true));
instead of
dd($request->all());

Answer 2

$postbody='';
// Check for presence of a body in the request
if (count($request->json()->all())) {
$postbody = $request->json()->all();
}
This is how it's done in laravel 5.2 now.

Answer 3

Just a mention with jQuery v3.2.1 and Laravel 5.6.
Case 1: The JS object posted directly, like:
$.post("url", {name:'John'}, function( data ) {
});
Corresponding Laravel PHP code should be:
parse_str($request->getContent(),$data); //JSON will be parsed to object $data
Case 2: The JSON string posted, like:
$.post("url", JSON.stringify({name:'John'}), function( data ) {
});
Corresponding Laravel PHP code should be:
$data = json_decode($request->getContent(), true);

Answer 4

You can use getContent() method on Request object.
$request->getContent() //json as a string.

Answer 5

As of Laravel 5.2+, you can fetch it directly with $request->input('item') as well.
Retrieving JSON Input Values
When sending JSON requests to your application, you may access the
JSON data via the input method as long as the Content-Type header of
the request is properly set to application/json. You may even use
"dot" syntax to dig deeper into JSON arrays:
$name = $request->input('user.name');
https://laravel.com/docs/5.2/requests
As noted above, the content-type header must be set to application/json so the jQuery ajax call would need to include contentType: "application/json",
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/people",
data: '[{ "name": "John", "location": "Boston" }, { "name": "Dave", "location": "Lancaster" }]',
dataType: "json",
contentType: "application/json",
success:function(data) {
$('#save_message').html(data.message);
}
});
By fixing the AJAX call, $request->all() should work.

Answer 6

My jQuery ajax settings:
$.ajax({
headers: {'X-CSRF-TOKEN': $('meta[name="csrf-token"]').attr('content')},
url: url,
dataType: "json",
type: "post",
data: params,
success: function (resp){
....
},
error: responseFunc
});
And now i am able to get the request via $request->all() in Laravel
dataType: "json"
is the important part in the ajax request to handle the response as an json object and not string.