Laravel 7 session values not retained after redirect

Question

I am trying to set a session in Laravel 7 that will remember what language the website should be displayed in

On my routes I have

Route::get('set-locale/{locale}', function ($locale) {
    if (!in_array($locale, ['en', 'nl'])) {
        // todo: return with flash
    }

    \Illuminate\Support\Facades\Session::put('locale', $locale);

    // the session is set here

    return back();
})->name('set-locale');

I have a middleware that is part of the 'web' middlewares. I can see it is used on every page load, but the required value is not there

protected $middlewareGroups = [
    'web' => [
        \App\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class,
        \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse::class,
        \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class,
        // \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\AuthenticateSession::class,
        \Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class,
        \App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class,
        \Illuminate\Routing\Middleware\SubstituteBindings::class,
        Locale::class
    ],

class Locale
{
    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next, $guard = null)
    {
        dump(Session::all()); // I can see the login info here, not the locale
        if (Session::has('locale')) {
            App::setLocale(Session::get('locale'));
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

I did not change the config for the sessions, so it is using the default settings

'driver' => env('SESSION_DRIVER', 'file'),
'lifetime' => env('SESSION_LIFETIME', 120),
'expire_on_close' => false,

I looked into using

back()->with('locale', $locale);

But that does not work either, and I also want to retain the value for the duration of the session, not just for the next request

I have been looking at dozens of similar questions here and elsewhere and none of them seem to cover this exact scenario

Answer 1

I have checked your scenario and make the same thing on my laptop. The session is working fine.

Here is my implementation.

env file

BROADCAST_DRIVER=log
CACHE_DRIVER=file
SESSION_DRIVER=file
SESSION_LIFETIME=120
QUEUE_DRIVER=sync

Middleware

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Session;

class Locale
{
    /**
     * Handle an incoming request.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @param  \Closure  $next
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle($request, Closure $next, $guard = null)
    {
        dump(Session::all()); // I can see the login info here, not the locale
        if (Session::has('locale')) {
            \App::setLocale(Session::get('locale'));
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

Kernel.php

protected $middlewareGroups = [
    'web' => [
        \App\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class,
        \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse::class,
        \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class,
        // \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\AuthenticateSession::class,
        \Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class,
        \App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class,
        \Illuminate\Routing\Middleware\SubstituteBindings::class,
        \App\Http\Middleware\Locale::class,
        \Laravel\Passport\Http\Middleware\CreateFreshApiToken::class,
    ],
    ...
];

Routes

Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('welcome');
});


Route::get('set-locale/{locale}', function ($locale) {
    if (!in_array($locale, ['en', 'nl'])) {
        // todo: return with flash
    }

    \Illuminate\Support\Facades\Session::put('locale', $locale);

    // the session is set here

    return back();
})->name('set-locale');

When I open the URL the first time it shows me the following result.

but when I open URL

set-locale/en

then the "en" is set on the session and further request gives me the following output.

Note:- You may need to clear the content of the session folder "\storage\framework\sessions" to clear the sessions things.