Laravel Route Parameters in FormRequests

If you like to use FormRequest objects in your controllers (and who doesn't?), but you also want them to include the named parameters from your routes, there's an easy way to do that by using a custom service provider.

You'll only need a few lines of code, so if you have an existing custom service provider that you'd like to use, you can put it there.

Using an existing service provider

First, make sure to use the Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest class at the top of the file, underneath the namespace declaration:

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;

Then, put the following code inside the boot method.

public function boot()
{
    // automatically add route params to FormRequest objects
    $this->app->resolving(FormRequest::class, function ($request, $app) {
        $request->merge($request->route()->parameters());
    });
}

Using a new service provider

If you don't have an existing service provider yet, or if you'd like to keep this code in its own service provider, first create a new provider using the artisan command:

php artisan make:provider FormRequestProvider

That will create the app/Providers/FormRequestProvider.php file. After copying the code from above, the entire file should look like this:

namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;

class FormRequestServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Bootstrap services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot()
    {
        // automatically add route params to FormRequest objects
        $this->app->resolving(FormRequest::class, function ($request, $app) {
            $request->merge($request->route()->parameters());
        });
    }

    /**
     * Register services.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function register()
    {
        //
    }
}

If you created a new service provider, also make sure to add it to the providers array in the config/app.php file. Otherwise, Laravel won't load it! You can put it in the Application Service Providers section.

Inside config/app.php:

'providers' => [
    ...

    /*
     * Application Service Providers...
     */
    App\Providers\AppServiceProvider::class,
    App\Providers\AuthServiceProvider::class,
    App\Providers\EventServiceProvider::class,
    App\Providers\FormRequestServiceProvider::class,
    App\Providers\RepositoryProvider::class,
    App\Providers\RouteServiceProvider::class,
    App\Providers\ValidationServiceProvider::class,

    ...
],

And that's it! Now, when using your FormRequest objects in your controllers (or anywhere else), you'll have access to named route parameters. You can use them just like any other data in your FormRequest.

Example usage

For example, a named route param like this:

Route::get('user/{id}', 'UserController@getUser');

...will let you do this in the controller:

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Http\Requests\GetUser;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function getUser(GetUser $request)
    {
        $id = $request->id;
    }
}

Now you can write validation rules for the named parameters inside your FormRequest, use them in the authorize method, and access them in your controller, just as you would for any other field. Convenient!