I am making a blogging application with Laravel 8 and Bootstrap 5.

I run into a problem trying to validate my "Add new article" form: when the form fails validation, the valid fields do not keep their values, despite ne using Blade's old() method.

In the controller, I have:

namespace App\Http\Controllers\Dashboard;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Validator;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use App\Models\ArticleCategory;
use App\Models\Article;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class ArticleController extends Controller
{
    
    private $rules = [
        'category_id' => ['required', 'exists:article_categories,id'],
        'title' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
        'short_description' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
        'image' => ['mimes: jpeg, jpg, png, gif', 'max:2048'],
        'content' => ['required', 'string']
    ];

    private $messages = [
        'category_id.required' => 'Please pick a category for the article',
        'title.required' => 'Please provide a title for the article',
        'short_description.required' => 'The article needs a short description',
        'content.required' => 'Please add content'
    ];
    
    public function categories() {
        return ArticleCategory::all();
    }
    
    public function index() {
        $articles = Article::paginate(10);

        return view('dashboard/articles',
            ['articles' => $articles]
        );
    }

    public function create() {
        // Load the view and populate the form with categories
        return view('dashboard/add-article',
            ['categories' => $this->categories()]
        );
    }

    public function save(Request $request) {

        // Validate form (with custom messages)
        $validator = Validator::make($request->all(), $this->rules, $this->messages);

        if ($validator->fails()) {
            return redirect()->back()->withErrors($validator->errors());
        }

        $fields = $validator->validated();

        // Upload article image
        $current_user = Auth::user();

        if (isset($request->image)) {
            $imageName = md5(time()) . $current_user->id . '.' . $request->image->extension();
            $request->image->move(public_path('images/articles'), $imageName);
        }

        // Data to be added
        $form_data = [
            'user_id' => Auth::user()->id,
            'category_id' => $fields['category_id'],
            'title' => $fields['title'],
            'slug' => Str::slug($fields['title'], '-'),
            'short_description' => $fields['short_description'],
            'content' => $fields['content'],
            'image' => $fields['image'],
            'featured' => $fields['featured']
        ];

        // Insert data in the 'articles' table
        $query = Article::create($form_data);

        if ($query) {
            return redirect()->route('dashboard.articles')->with('success', 'Article added');
        } else {
            return redirect()->back()->with('error', 'Adding article failed');
        }

    }
}

The form:

<form method="POST" action="{{ route('dashboard.articles.add') }}">
    @csrf
    <div >
            <label for="title" >{{ __('Title') }}</label>

            <div >
                    <input id="title" type="text" placeholder="Title"  name="title" value="{{ old('title') }}" autocomplete="title" autofocus>

                    @error('title')
                        <span  role="alert">
                            <strong>{{ $message }}</strong>
                        </span>
                    @enderror
            </div>
    </div>

    <div >
            <label for="short_description" >{{ __('Short description') }}</label>

            <div >
                    <input id="short_description" type="text" placeholder="Short description"  name="short_description" value="{{ old('short_description') }}" autocomplete="short_description" autofocus>

                    @error('short_description')
                        <span  role="alert">
                            <strong>{{ $message }}</strong>
                        </span>
                    @enderror
            </div>
    </div>

    <div >
        <label for="category" >{{ __('Category') }}</label>
    
        <div >
    
            <select name="category_id" id="category" >
                <option value="0">Pick a category</option>
                @foreach($categories as $category)
                    <option value="{{ $category->id }}">{{ $category->name }}</option>
                @endforeach
            </select>
                
                @error('category_id')
                    <span  role="alert">
                        <strong>{{ $message }}</strong>
                    </span>
                @enderror
        </div>
    </div>

    <div >
        <div >
                <p >Featured article?</p>
                <input  type="checkbox" name="featured" id="featured">
                <label  for="featured">{{ __('Toggle') }}</label>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div >
        <label for="image" >{{ __('Article image') }}</label>
    
        <div >
            <input type="file" name="image" id="file" >
    
            @error('image')
                <span  role="alert">
                    <strong>{{ $message }}</strong>
                </span>
            @enderror
        </div>
    </div>

    <div >
        <label for="content" >{{ __('Content') }}</label>

        <div >

            <textarea name="content" id="content"  placeholder="Content" cols="30" rows="6">{{ old('content') }}</textarea>

            @error('content')
                <span  role="alert">
                    <strong>{{ $message }}</strong>
                </span>
            @enderror
        </div>
    </div>
    
    <div >
            <div >
                    <button type="submit" >
                            {{ __('Save') }}
                    </button>
            </div>
    </div>
</form>

The routes:

// Article routes
Route::group(['prefix' => 'articles'], function() {
    Route::get('/', [ArticleController::class, 'index'])->name('dashboard.articles');
    Route::get('/new', [ArticleController::class, 'create'])->name('dashboard.articles.new');
    Route::post('/add', [ArticleController::class, 'save'])->name('dashboard.articles.add');
    Route::get('/delete/{id}', [ArticleController::class, 'delete'])->name('dashboard.articles.delete');
}); 

The problem:

I was expecting this syntax for keeping the values of valid fields in an invalid form, should work: value="{{ old('title') }}". But, fo a reason I have been enable to spot, it does not. The form is reset entirely.

What is my mistake?

CodePudding user response：

You're redirecting back to the previous page without telling Laravel to pass the old inputs. Use the method withInput() with the route return.

Change

return redirect()->back()->withErrors($validator->errors()); 

with

 return redirect()->back()->withErrors($validator->errors())->withInput();