A Form Request in Laravel is the right way to handle validation and authorization for form submissions. 1. It keeps controllers clean by moving validation rules and authorization logic into a dedicated class. 2. Use php artisan make:request StoreBlogPostRequest to generate the class. 3. Implement authorize() to check user permissions, returning true or a policy check. 4. Define validation rules in the rules() method, such as 'title' => 'required|string|max:255'. 5. Customize error messages and attribute names using the messages() and attributes() methods. 6. Type-hint the Form Request in the controller method, and Laravel automatically runs authorization and validation before executing the controller logic. 7. Use withValidator() for conditional validation based on complex business rules. 8. Benefits include cleaner code, reusability across controllers, better organization, and support for dependency injection. Form Requests are especially valuable in larger applications, improving maintainability as complexity grows.
A Form Request in Laravel is a special type of class used to handle validation and authorization logic for incoming HTTP requests—especially those coming from form submissions. Instead of writing validation rules directly in your controller, Laravel allows you to encapsulate this logic in a dedicated Form Request class, making your code cleaner, more organized, and easier to reuse.

Why Use a Form Request?
When handling form data (like user registration, login, or profile updates), you typically need to:
- Validate the input (e.g., check required fields, email format, etc.)
- Authorize the user to perform the action (e.g., only admins can submit certain forms)
Instead of cluttering your controller with validation logic like this:

public function store(Request $request) { $request->validate([ 'title' => 'required|max:255', 'body' => 'required', ]); // Save logic... }
You can move that into a Form Request, which keeps your controller focused on handling the business logic.
How to Create a Form Request
Use Artisan to generate a form request class:

php artisan make:request StoreBlogPostRequest
This creates a file in app/Http/Requests/StoreBlogPostRequest.php
.
Inside the generated class, you’ll find two main methods:
1. authorize()
Determines whether the user is allowed to make this request.
public function authorize() { return $this->user()->can('create', Post::class); // Or just return true if no special check is needed }
2. rules()
Defines the validation rules.
public function rules() { return [ 'title' => 'required|string|max:255', 'body' => 'required|string', 'category_id' => 'required|exists:categories,id', ]; }
You can also customize error messages or validation attributes by overriding messages()
and attributes()
methods:
public function messages() { return [ 'title.required' => 'A title is required.', 'body.required' => 'Please enter the content.', ]; } public function attributes() { return [ 'body' => 'content', ]; }
How to Use It in a Controller
Once created, type-hint the Form Request in your controller method instead of the generic Request
:
use App\Http\Requests\StoreBlogPostRequest; public function store(StoreBlogPostRequest $request) { // Validation and authorization already passed Post::create($request->validated()); return redirect()->route('posts.index'); }
Laravel automatically:
- Runs the
authorize()
method (if it returnsfalse
, a 403 error is thrown) - Validates the request against the
rules()
- Only proceeds to the controller method if everything passes
Benefits of Form Requests
- ? Cleaner controllers – No validation noise
- ? Reusable – Can be used across multiple actions or controllers
- ? Extensible – Easy to add custom logic, like conditional validation
- ? Better organization – All request logic lives in one place
- ? Supports dependency injection – You can inject services into the request class if needed
Advanced Tip: Conditional Validation
You can use the withValidator()
method to add extra logic after the validator is created:
public function withValidator($validator) { $validator->after(function ($validator) { if ($this->somethingElseIsInvalid()) { $validator->errors()->add('field', 'Something is wrong!'); } }); }
This is useful when validation depends on complex business logic.
Form Requests are especially helpful in larger applications where form handling gets complex. They might feel like overkill for simple projects, but they pay off in maintainability as your app grows.
Basically, if you're validating form input in Laravel, a Form Request is the right way to do it.
The above is the detailed content of What is a Form Request in Laravel?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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