Controllers

Controllers are thin HTTP adapters - validate / authorize / call services / return a response. Same advice as Nest or Express: don't bury domain logic forever in the controller… but for learning, it's fine to start there.

Generate one

php artisan make:controller PostController
# or resource:
php artisan make:controller PostController --resource

Thin example

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\Post;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\View\View;
use Illuminate\Http\RedirectResponse;

class PostController extends Controller
{
    public function index(): View
    {
        $posts = Post::query()->latest()->paginate(10);

        return view('posts.index', compact('posts'));
    }

    public function store(Request $request): RedirectResponse
    {
        $data = $request->validate([
            'title' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
            'body' => ['required', 'string'],
        ]);

        Post::query()->create($data);

        return redirect()->route('posts.index');
    }
}

Comments for the code above:

• Return types (View, RedirectResponse) help readers and static analysis
• $request->validate([...]) throws a redirect-back with errors on failure - browser form UX for free
• compact('posts') is ['posts' => $posts] - old PHP sugar, still common

Invokable controllers

Single-action class - nice for dedicated endpoints:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

class PublishPostController extends Controller
{
    public function __invoke(Post $post)
    {
        $post->update(['published_at' => now()]);

        return redirect()->route('posts.show', $post);
    }
}

// Route::post('/posts/{post}/publish', PublishPostController::class);

Dependency injection

<?php

public function __construct(
    private PostService $posts,
) {}

Laravel resolves PostService from the container - the DI story from the PHP tutorial runway chapter, now automatic.

What to return

Intent	Typical return
HTML page	view('…', $data)
Redirect after POST	redirect()->route('…')
JSON	response()->json($data)
404	abort(404) or findOrFail
Download	response()->download($path)

Keep controllers boring. Boring is good.

Best,

-- ł.