Single method to handle post or loading view in laravel - laravel

Question

I am trying to understand how POST routing will work. I have a method defined, signup(), and I want to use the same method to detect if the user wants to sign up (so load the signup view) or if the user already in the signup view (form) and posting his details to register.
Can this be done in one function in laravel? if yes, then how? Is this controlled by Routes and if yes, can someone please clarify this with an example?
Laravel documentation is really confusing for beginners.
Thanks in advance,

Answer 1

While this is possible but it's not recommended way to do that, you should keep your routes separated from each other (using GET and POST) and should use different methods as well. Basically any form submission should use POST request (using POST HTTP method) and to show the form just use a GET method but anyways, you can do it (what you have asked for) like this way:
// Declare the route
Route::post('signup', 'UserController#signup');
Now in your signup check for the submit button to make sure that, the form is submitted, so if the input submit is available in the $_POST array then the form is submitted otherwise, it's not submitted but an empty form was presented to the user or a failed validation redirect happened. Maybe something like this:
public function signup()
{
if(Input::has('submit')) {
// It's a submission, so Validate submitted Form data
// if invalid then redirect back with inputs and errors
// Otherwise save it
}
else {
// show the form
return View::make('user.signup');
}
}
Don't do it
This is just an idea but, it's a bad idea, just think about what happens if you have errors on your form and you want to redirect back then the whole thing would become messy, the controller method will become totally unmanageable after a while because it does many things while it should have only one specific responsibility.
I have this practical experience, because, I used to think that, if I can use one function for loading and saving and even also updating then it would be smart but to be honest it was stupid and obviously it's an anti-pattern, not the best practice, against KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle. This kind of coding is a bad idea and you'll suffer for it in future and you would not dare to touch the code thinking that if you brake anything because you'll be confused by your own code.
Just use separate methods to show a form and save submitted data, Also check this on slideshare.

Answer 2

Yes, you can use one route to do it:
Route::any('signup', 'SignupController#signup');
Or two routes pointing to the same url:
Route::get('signup', 'SignupController#getSignup');
Route::post('signup', 'SignupController#postSignup');
In both cases you'll need a controller:
Here it is with all related methods:
class SignupController extends Controller {
// This one is for Route::any()
public function signup()
{
if (Input::has('email'))
{
// create your user
}
return View::make('signup');
}
// those two are for the second option
public function getSignup()
{
return View::make('signup');
}
public function postSignup()
{
// create your user
}
}