Laravel UpdateUserRequest validation rule with user id

Question

I have a User model, and this is my update() method in UserController:

public function update(Request $request, User $user)
{
    // Assign authorization
    Gate::authorize('update', $user);
    
    $request->validate([
        'username' => 'required|unique:users,username,' . $user->id,
        // other rules ...
    ]);
    
    // ...
}

I want to keep these validation rules in a separate UpdateUserRequest request:

class UpdateUserRequest extends FormRequest
{
    public function authorize(): bool
    {
        return true; // Changed to 'true' to handle authorization logic in UserPolicy
    }

    public function rules(): array
    {
        return [
            'username' => 'required|unique:users,username,' . $user->id, // <-- Problem
            // other rules ...
        ];
    }
}

The problem here is that $user is not defined. I have read elsewhere that using a route for this matter is a possible solution, but that's not the proper way of achieving this task.

My question is what is the correct way to pass user information to UpdateUserRequest class?

Answer 1

My question is what is the correct way to pass user information to UpdateUserRequest class?

I assumed you are using laravel 11.X and your route definition is...

Route::put('/users/{user}', [UserController::class, 'update']);

In this scenario you can do it inside the UpdateUserRequest.

class UpdateUserRequest extends FormRequest
{
    public function authorize(): bool
    {
        // Here you can also interact with your `gates` & `policy`,Check the docs link I provided below to get clear insights.
        return true; 
    }

    public function rules(): array
    {
        //Scenario 1
        $user = User::find($this->route('user')); //If you are not using `implicit model binding`
        //Scenario 2
        $user = $this->user ; //If you are using `route-model-binding`


        return [
            'username' => 'required|unique:users,username,' . $user->id, // <-- "Issue will be solved"
            // other rules ...
        ];
    }
}

Then in Controller class import & type-hint the FormRequest class i.e. UpdateUserRequest on your Controller method that is missing in your current code.

public function update(UpdateUserRequest $request, User $user)
{
    // Assign authorization
    Gate::authorize('update', $user);

    // Retrieve the validated input data...
     $validated = $request->validated();  // it will by default validate all the input data you set up in the `rule()` of `UpdateUserRequest`
    
    
    // ...
}

For more clear and in-depth insights please check the official-docs here.