Laravel 4: redirect if item doesn't exists, ModelNotFoundException doesn't work anyway I try it - laravel

Question

I'm following Dayle Rees' book "Code Bright" tutorial on building a basic app with Laravel (Playstation Game Collection).
So far so good, the app is working but, following his advices at the end of the chapter, I'm doing my homeworks trying to improve it
So, this snippet is working fine for existing models but throws an error if the item doesn't exists:
public function edit(Game $game){
return View::make('/games/edit', compact('game'));
}
In other words, http://laravel/games/edit/1 shows the item with ID = 1, but http://laravel/games/edit/21456 throws an error since there's no item with that ID
Let's improve this behaviour, adapting some scripts found also here on StackOverflow (Laravel 4: using controller to redirect page if post does not exist - tried but failed so far):
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\ModelNotFoundException; // top of the page
...
public function edit(Game $game){
try {
$current = Game::findOrFail($game->id);
return View::make('/games/edit', compact('game'));
} catch(ModelNotFoundException $e) {
return Redirect::action('GamesController#index');
}
}
Well... nothing happens! I still have the error with no redirect to the action 'GamesController#index'... and please notice that I have no namespaces in my Controller
I tried almost anything:
Replace catch(ModelNotFoundException $e) with catch(Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\ModelNotFoundException $e): no way
put use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\ModelNotFoundException; in Model instead of Controller
Return a simple return 'fail'; instead of return Redirect::action('GamesController#index'); to see if the problem lies there
Put almost everywhere this snippet suggested in Laravel documentation
App::error(function(ModelNotFoundException $e)
{
return Response::make('Not Found', 404);
});
Well, simply nothing happened: my error is still there
Wanna see it? Here are the first two items in the errors stack:
http://www.iwstudio.it/laravelerrors/01.png
http://www.iwstudio.it/laravelerrors/02.png
Please, can someone tell me what am I missing? This is driving me mad...
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Here are few of my solutions:
First Solution
The most straightforward fix to your problem will be to use ->find() instead of ->findOrFail().
public function edit(Game $game){
// Using find will return NULL if not found instead of throwing exception
$current = Game::find($game->id);
// If NOT NULL, show view, ELSE Redirect away
return $current ? View::make('/games/edit', compact('game')) : Redirect::action('GamesController#index');
}
Second solution
As I notice you may have been using model binding to your route, according to Laravel Route model binding:
Note: If a matching model instance is not found in the database, a 404 error will be thrown.
So somewhere where you define the model binding, you can add your closure to handle the error:
Route::model('game', 'Game', function()
{
return Redirect::action('GamesController#index');
});
Third Solution
In your screenshot, your App::error seems to work as the error says HttpNotFound Exception which is Laravel's way of saying 404 error. So the last solution is to write your redirect there, though this apply globally (so highly discouraged).