When trying to register an admin user via Postman, you are receiving the default Laravel welcome page instead of the expected JSON response.

[joe14r]

Laravel Version

9.52.20

PHP Version

8.0.2

Database Driver & Version

my sql version 10.4.17-MariaDB (xampp phpmyadmin)

Description

Steps to Reproduce:

Open Postman and create a new POST request.
Set the URL to http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/admin/register.
Set the Headers:
Content-Type: application/json
Set the Body (JSON):
{ "name": "Admin Name", "email": "[email protected]", "password": "password", "password_confirmation": "password" }
Send the request.
Expected Result: A JSON response indicating successful registration:
{ "message": "Admin registered successfully" }

Actual Result: The default Laravel welcome page is returned.

relevant files and code:

routes/api.php

`<?php
// filepath: /c:/Users/youss/Desktop/Fyp2/QROrderingSystem/routes/api.php
<?php

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\AdminAuthController;
use App\Http\Controllers\MenuController;
use App\Http\Controllers\OrderController;
use App\Http\Controllers\PaymentController;
use App\Http\Controllers\FeedbackController;

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| API Routes
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here is where you can register API routes for your application. These
| routes are loaded by the RouteServiceProvider within a group which
| is assigned the "api" middleware group. Enjoy building your API!
|
*/

Route::middleware('api')->group(function () {
    Route::post('/admin/register', [AdminAuthController::class, 'register']);
    Route::post('/admin/login', [AdminAuthController::class, 'login']);
});

Route::post('admin/logout', [AdminAuthController::class, 'logout'])->middleware('auth:sanctum');

Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->group(function () {
    Route::get('menu', [MenuController::class, 'index']);
    Route::post('menu', [MenuController::class, 'store']);
    Route::put('menu/{id}', [MenuController::class, 'update']);
    Route::delete('menu/{id}', [MenuController::class, 'destroy']);

    Route::post('order', [OrderController::class, 'store']);
    Route::get('orders', [OrderController::class, 'index']);
    Route::get('order/{id}', [OrderController::class, 'show']);
    Route::put('order/{id}/status', [OrderController::class, 'updateStatus']);

    Route::post('payment', [PaymentController::class, 'store']);
    Route::get('payments', [PaymentController::class, 'index']);

    Route::post('feedback', [FeedbackController::class, 'store']);
    Route::get('feedback', [FeedbackController::class, 'index']);
});

Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->get('/user', function (Request $request) {
    return $request->user();
});`

app/Http/Controllers/AdminAuthController.php

`<?php
// filepath: /c:/Users/youss/Desktop/Fyp2/QROrderingSystem/app/Http/Controllers/AdminAuthController.php
<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class AdminAuthController extends Controller
{
    public function register(Request $request)
    {
        \Log::info('Register method called'); // Add this line for debugging

        $request->validate([
            'name' => 'required|string|max:255',
            'email' => 'required|string|email|max:255|unique:users',
            'password' => 'required|string|min:8|confirmed',
        ]);

        $user = User::create([
            'name' => $request->name,
            'email' => $request->email,
            'password' => Hash::make($request->password),
            'role' => 'admin',
        ]);

        return response()->json(['message' => 'Admin registered successfully'], 201);
    }

    public function login(Request $request)
    {
        $request->validate([
            'email' => 'required|string|email',
            'password' => 'required|string',
        ]);

        if (!Auth::attempt($request->only('email', 'password'))) {
            return response()->json(['message' => 'Invalid login credentials'], 401);
        }

        $user = Auth::user();
        $token = $user->createToken('auth_token')->plainTextToken;

        return response()->json(['token' => $token, 'user' => $user], 200);
    }

    public function logout(Request $request)
    {
        $request->user()->tokens()->delete();

        return response()->json(['message' => 'Logged out successfully'], 200);
    }
}`

app/Providers/RouteServiceProvider.php

`<?php`
// filepath: /c:/Users/youss/Desktop/Fyp2/QROrderingSystem/app/Providers/RouteServiceProvider.php
<?php

namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Support\Providers\RouteServiceProvider as ServiceProvider;

class RouteServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * This namespace is applied to your controller routes.
     *
     * In addition, it is set as the URL generator's root namespace.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $namespace = 'App\Http\Controllers';

    /**
     * Define your route model bindings, pattern filters, etc.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function boot()
    {
        parent::boot();
    }

    /**
     * Define the routes for the application.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function map()
    {
        $this->mapApiRoutes();

        $this->mapWebRoutes();
    }

    /**
     * Define the "web" routes for the application.
     *
     * These routes all receive session state, CSRF protection, etc.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    protected function mapWebRoutes()
    {
        Route::middleware('web')
             ->namespace($this->namespace)
             ->group(base_path('routes/web.php'));
    }

    /**
     * Define the "api" routes for the application.
     *
     * These routes are typically stateless.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    protected function mapApiRoutes()
    {
        Route::prefix('api')
             ->middleware('api')
             ->namespace($this->namespace)
             ->group(base_path('routes/api.php'));
    }
}

.env

`APP_NAME=Laravel
APP_ENV=local
APP_KEY=base64:a5rAm8ogzWPLPNJ9Zyd7wrceX2gsKcg7NcJWbbFvPhc=
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000

LOG_CHANNEL=stack
LOG_DEPRECATIONS_CHANNEL=null
LOG_LEVEL=debug

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=qr_ordering_system
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

BROADCAST_DRIVER=log
CACHE_DRIVER=file
FILESYSTEM_DISK=local
QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync
SESSION_DRIVER=file
SESSION_LIFETIME=120

MEMCACHED_HOST=127.0.0.1

REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=mailpit
MAIL_PORT=1025
MAIL_USERNAME=null
MAIL_PASSWORD=null
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="[email protected]"
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1
AWS_BUCKET=
AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT=false

PUSHER_APP_ID=
PUSHER_APP_KEY=
PUSHER_APP_SECRET=
PUSHER_HOST=
PUSHER_PORT=443
PUSHER_SCHEME=https
PUSHER_APP_CLUSTER=mt1

VITE_PUSHER_APP_KEY="${PUSHER_APP_KEY}"
VITE_PUSHER_HOST="${PUSHER_HOST}"
VITE_PUSHER_PORT="${PUSHER_PORT}"
VITE_PUSHER_SCHEME="${PUSHER_SCHEME}"
VITE_PUSHER_APP_CLUSTER="${PUSHER_APP_CLUSTER}"
`

Please provide any insights or suggestions on why the API request is returning the Laravel welcome page instead of the expected JSON response. Any help in identifying the root cause and resolving this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Steps To Reproduce

.

[rodrigopedra]

You are missing Accept: application/json.

On an HTTP Request:

• Content-Type describes how the content of the body of the request sent from the client is supposed to be encoded, so the server can try to properly decode it
• Accept describes what type of content the HTTP client is expecting the server to send as a response

(Content-Type can also be sent on the response, describing how the response body is encoded)

By default, Laravel will return HTML when no Accept header is present.

Actually, when the Accept header is absent, it also checks if the request has a X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest. But Accept: application/json always takes precedence.

To force all /api to always return a JSON response, regardless if the request has an Accept: application/json header, you can add this middleware to your global middleware stack:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

class EnsureJsonResponseForApi
{
    public function handle(Request $request, \Closure $next): Response
    {
        if ($request->is('api/*')) {
            $request->headers->set('Accept', 'application/json');
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

Or add a similar one, that always sets the Accept header to application/json just to your api middleware stack.