laravel controller action structure - laravel

Question

After watching many laracasts, one statement is everywhere: keep the controller as light as possible.
Ok, I am trying to familiarize myself with laravel concepts and philosophy, with the Repository and the separation of concerns patterns and I have some questions that bother me, let's assume the following:
Route::resource('/item', 'ItemController');
class Item extends \Eloquent {}
the repo
class EloquentItemRepo implements ItemRepo {
public function all()
{
return Item::all();
}
public function find($id)
{
return Item::where('id', '=', $id);
}
}
and the controller:
class ItemController extends BaseController {
protected $item;
public function __construct(ItemRepo $item)
{
$this->item = $item;
}
public function index()
{
$items = $this->item->all();
return Response::json(compact('items'))
}
}
For now, everything is simple and clean (assume that the repo is loaded by providers etc.) the controller is really simple and does nothing except loading and returning the data (I used json but anything will do).
Please assume that I am using an auth filter that checks that the user
is logged in and exists, or return an error if it doesn't, so I don't
have to do any further check in the controller.
Now, what if I need to do more checks, for instance:
response_* methods are helpers that format a Json response
public function destroy($id)
{
try {
if ($this->item->destroy($id)) {
return Response::json(['success' => true]);
}
return response_failure(
Lang::get('errors.api.orders.delete'),
Config::get('status.error.forbidden')
);
} catch (Exception $e) {
return response_failure(
Lang::get('errors.api.orders.not_found'),
Config::get('status.error.notfound')
);
}
}
In this case I have to test many things:
The desctuction worked? (return true)
The destruction failed? (return false)
There was an error during deletion ? (ex.: the item wasn't found with firstOrFail)
I have methods where many more tests are done, and my impression is that the controller is growing bigger and bigger so I can handle any possible errors.
Is it the right way to manage this ? The controller should be full of checks or the tests should be moved elsewhere ?
In the provider I often use item->firstOrFail() and let the exception bubble up to the controller, is it good ?
If someone could point me to the right direction as all the laracasts or other tutorials always use the simpler case, where not many controls are needed.
Edits: Practical case
Ok so here a practical case of my questioning:
controller
/**
* Update an order.
* #param int $id Order id.
* #return \Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse
*/
public function update($id)
{
try {
$orderItem = $this->order->update($id, Input::all());
if (false === $orderItem) {
return response_failure(
Lang::get('errors.api.orders.update'),
Config::get('status.error.forbidden')
);
}
return response_success();
} catch (Exception $e) {
return response_failure(
Lang::get('errors.api.orders.not_found'),
Config::get('status.error.notfound')
);
}
}
repo
public function update($id, $input)
{
$itemId = $input['itemId'];
$quantity = $input['quantity'] ?: 1;
// cannot update without item id
if (!$itemId) {
return false;
}
$catalogItem = CatalogItem::where('hash', '=', $itemId)->firstOrFail();
$orderItem = OrderItem::fromCatalogItem($catalogItem);
// update quantity
$orderItem->quantity = $quantity;
return Order::findOrFail($id)->items()->save($orderItem);
}
In this case thare are 3 possible problems:
order not found
catalogItem not found
itemId not set in post data
In the way I have organized that, the problem is that the top level error message won't be clear, as it will alway state: "order not found" even if it's the catalog item that couldn't be found.
The only possibility that I see is to catch multiple exceptions codes in the controller and raise a different error message, but won't this overload the controller ?