HTTP Client
Introduction
Laravel provides an expressive, minimal API around the Guzzle HTTP client, allowing you to quickly make outgoing HTTP requests to communicate with other web applications. Laravel's wrapper around Guzzle is focused on its most common use cases and a wonderful developer experience.
Before getting started, you should ensure that you have installed the Guzzle package as a dependency of your application. By default, Laravel automatically includes this dependency. However, if you have previously removed the package, you may install it again via Composer:
composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle
Making Requests
To make requests, you may use the get
, post
, put
, patch
, and delete
methods provided by the Http
facade. First, let's examine how to make a basic GET
request to another URL:
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
$response = Http::get('http://example.com');
The get
method returns an instance of Illuminate\Http\Client\Response
, which provides a variety of methods that may be used to inspect the response:
$response->body() : string;
$response->json() : array|mixed;
$response->object() : object;
$response->collect() : Illuminate\Support\Collection;
$response->status() : int;
$response->ok() : bool;
$response->successful() : bool;
$response->failed() : bool;
$response->serverError() : bool;
$response->clientError() : bool;
$response->header($header) : string;
$response->headers() : array;
The Illuminate\Http\Client\Response
object also implements the PHP ArrayAccess
interface, allowing you to access JSON response data directly on the response:
return Http::get('http://example.com/users/1')['name'];
Dumping Requests
If you would like to dump the outgoing request instance before it is sent and terminate the script's execution, you may add the dd
method to the beginning of your request definition:
return Http::dd()->get('http://example.com');
Request Data
Of course, it is common when making POST
, PUT
, and PATCH
requests to send additional data with your request, so these methods accept an array of data as their second argument. By default, data will be sent using the application/json
content type:
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
$response = Http::post('http://example.com/users', [
'name' => 'Steve',
'role' => 'Network Administrator',
]);
GET Request Query Parameters
When making GET
requests, you may either append a query string to the URL directly or pass an array of key / value pairs as the second argument to the get
method:
$response = Http::get('http://example.com/users', [
'name' => 'Taylor',
'page' => 1,
]);
Sending Form URL Encoded Requests
If you would like to send data using the application/x-www-form-urlencoded
content type, you should call the asForm
method before making your request:
$response = Http::asForm()->post('http://example.com/users', [
'name' => 'Sara',
'role' => 'Privacy Consultant',
]);
Sending A Raw Request Body
You may use the withBody
method if you would like to provide a raw request body when making a request. The content type may be provided via the method's second argument:
$response = Http::withBody(
base64_encode($photo), 'image/jpeg'
)->post('http://example.com/photo');
Multi-Part Requests
If you would like to send files as multi-part requests, you should call the attach
method before making your request. This method accepts the name of the file and its contents. If needed, you may provide a third argument which will be considered the file's filename:
$response = Http::attach(
'attachment', file_get_contents('photo.jpg'), 'photo.jpg'
)->post('http://example.com/attachments');
Instead of passing the raw contents of a file, you may pass a stream resource:
$photo = fopen('photo.jpg', 'r');
$response = Http::attach(
'attachment', $photo, 'photo.jpg'
)->post('http://example.com/attachments');
Headers
Headers may be added to requests using the withHeaders
method. This withHeaders
method accepts an array of key / value pairs:
$response = Http::withHeaders([
'X-First' => 'foo',
'X-Second' => 'bar'
])->post('http://example.com/users', [
'name' => 'Taylor',
]);
You may use the accept
method to specify the content type that your application is expecting in response to your request:
$response = Http::accept('application/json')->get('http://example.com/users');
For convenience, you may use the acceptJson
method to quickly specify that your application expects the application/json
content type in response to your request:
$response = Http::acceptJson()->get('http://example.com/users');
Authentication
You may specify basic and digest authentication credentials using the withBasicAuth
and withDigestAuth
methods, respectively:
// Basic authentication...
$response = Http::withBasicAuth('taylor@laravel.com', 'secret')->post(...);
// Digest authentication...
$response = Http::withDigestAuth('taylor@laravel.com', 'secret')->post(...);
Bearer Tokens
If you would like to quickly add a bearer token to the request's Authorization
header, you may use the withToken
method:
$response = Http::withToken('token')->post(...);
Timeout
The timeout
method may be used to specify the maximum number of seconds to wait for a response:
$response = Http::timeout(3)->get(...);
If the given timeout is exceeded, an instance of Illuminate\Http\Client\ConnectionException
will be thrown.
Retries
If you would like HTTP client to automatically retry the request if a client or server error occurs, you may use the retry
method. The retry
method accepts the maximum number of times the request should be attempted and the number of milliseconds that Laravel should wait in between attempts:
$response = Http::retry(3, 100)->post(...);
If needed, you may pass a third argument to the retry
method. The third argument should be a callable that determines if the retries should actually be attempted. For example, you may wish to only retry the request if the initial request encounters an ConnectionException
:
$response = Http::retry(3, 100, function ($exception) {
return $exception instanceof ConnectionException;
})->post(...);
If all of the requests fail, an instance of Illuminate\Http\Client\RequestException
will be thrown.
Error Handling
Unlike Guzzle's default behavior, Laravel's HTTP client wrapper does not throw exceptions on client or server errors (400
and 500
level responses from servers). You may determine if one of these errors was returned using the successful
, clientError
, or serverError
methods:
// Determine if the status code is >= 200 and < 300...
$response->successful();
// Determine if the status code is >= 400...
$response->failed();
// Determine if the response has a 400 level status code...
$response->clientError();
// Determine if the response has a 500 level status code...
$response->serverError();
Throwing Exceptions
If you have a response instance and would like to throw an instance of Illuminate\Http\Client\RequestException
if the response status code indicates a client or server error, you may use the throw
or throwIf
methods:
$response = Http::post(...);
// Throw an exception if a client or server error occurred...
$response->throw();
// Throw an exception if an error occurred and the given condition is true...
$response->throwIf($condition);
return $response['user']['id'];
The Illuminate\Http\Client\RequestException
instance has a public $response
property which will allow you to inspect the returned response.
The throw
method returns the response instance if no error occurred, allowing you to chain other operations onto the throw
method:
return Http::post(...)->throw()->json();
If you would like to perform some additional logic before the exception is thrown, you may pass a closure to the throw
method. The exception will be thrown automatically after the closure is invoked, so you do not need to re-throw the exception from within the closure:
return Http::post(...)->throw(function ($response, $e) {
//
})->json();
Guzzle Options
You may specify additional Guzzle request options using the withOptions
method. The withOptions
method accepts an array of key / value pairs:
$response = Http::withOptions([
'debug' => true,
])->get('http://example.com/users');
Concurrent Requests
Sometimes, you may wish to make multiple HTTP requests concurrently. In other words, you want several requests to be dispatched at the same time instead of issuing the requests sequentially. This can lead to substantial performance improvements when interacting with slow HTTP APIs.
Thankfully, you may accomplish this using the pool
method. The pool
method accepts a closure which receives an Illuminate\Http\Client\Pool
instance, allowing you to easily add requests to the request pool for dispatching:
use Illuminate\Http\Client\Pool;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
$responses = Http::pool(fn (Pool $pool) => [
$pool->get('http://localhost/first'),
$pool->get('http://localhost/second'),
$pool->get('http://localhost/third'),
]);
return $responses[0]->ok() &&
$responses[1]->ok() &&
$responses[2]->ok();
As you can see, each response instance can be accessed based on the order it was added to the pool. If you wish, you can name the requests using the as
method, which allows you to access the corresponding responses by name:
use Illuminate\Http\Client\Pool;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
$responses = Http::pool(fn (Pool $pool) => [
$pool->as('first')->get('http://localhost/first'),
$pool->as('second')->get('http://localhost/second'),
$pool->as('third')->get('http://localhost/third'),
]);
return $responses['first']->ok();
Testing
Many Laravel services provide functionality to help you easily and expressively write tests, and Laravel's HTTP wrapper is no exception. The Http
facade's fake
method allows you to instruct the HTTP client to return stubbed / dummy responses when requests are made.
Faking Responses
For example, to instruct the HTTP client to return empty, 200
status code responses for every request, you may call the fake
method with no arguments:
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
Http::fake();
$response = Http::post(...);
{note} When faking requests, HTTP client middleware are not executed. You should define expectations for faked responses as if these middleware have run correctly.
Faking Specific URLs
Alternatively, you may pass an array to the fake
method. The array's keys should represent URL patterns that you wish to fake and their associated responses. The *
character may be used as a wildcard character. Any requests made to URLs that have not been faked will actually be executed. You may use the Http
facade's response
method to construct stub / fake responses for these endpoints:
Http::fake([
// Stub a JSON response for GitHub endpoints...
'github.com/*' => Http::response(['foo' => 'bar'], 200, $headers),
// Stub a string response for Google endpoints...
'google.com/*' => Http::response('Hello World', 200, $headers),
]);
If you would like to specify a fallback URL pattern that will stub all unmatched URLs, you may use a single *
character:
Http::fake([
// Stub a JSON response for GitHub endpoints...
'github.com/*' => Http::response(['foo' => 'bar'], 200, ['Headers']),
// Stub a string response for all other endpoints...
'*' => Http::response('Hello World', 200, ['Headers']),
]);
Faking Response Sequences
Sometimes you may need to specify that a single URL should return a series of fake responses in a specific order. You may accomplish this using the Http::sequence
method to build the responses:
Http::fake([
// Stub a series of responses for GitHub endpoints...
'github.com/*' => Http::sequence()
->push('Hello World', 200)
->push(['foo' => 'bar'], 200)
->pushStatus(404),
]);
When all of the responses in a response sequence have been consumed, any further requests will cause the response sequence to throw an exception. If you would like to specify a default response that should be returned when a sequence is empty, you may use the whenEmpty
method:
Http::fake([
// Stub a series of responses for GitHub endpoints...
'github.com/*' => Http::sequence()
->push('Hello World', 200)
->push(['foo' => 'bar'], 200)
->whenEmpty(Http::response()),
]);
If you would like to fake a sequence of responses but do not need to specify a specific URL pattern that should be faked, you may use the Http::fakeSequence
method:
Http::fakeSequence()
->push('Hello World', 200)
->whenEmpty(Http::response());
Fake Callback
If you require more complicated logic to determine what responses to return for certain endpoints, you may pass a closure to the fake
method. This closure will receive an instance of Illuminate\Http\Client\Request
and should return a response instance. Within your closure, you may perform whatever logic is necessary to determine what type of response to return:
Http::fake(function ($request) {
return Http::response('Hello World', 200);
});
Inspecting Requests
When faking responses, you may occasionally wish to inspect the requests the client receives in order to make sure your application is sending the correct data or headers. You may accomplish this by calling the Http::assertSent
method after calling Http::fake
.
The assertSent
method accepts a closure which will receive an Illuminate\Http\Client\Request
instance and should return a boolean value indicating if the request matches your expectations. In order for the test to pass, at least one request must have been issued matching the given expectations:
use Illuminate\Http\Client\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
Http::fake();
Http::withHeaders([
'X-First' => 'foo',
])->post('http://example.com/users', [
'name' => 'Taylor',
'role' => 'Developer',
]);
Http::assertSent(function (Request $request) {
return $request->hasHeader('X-First', 'foo') &&
$request->url() == 'http://example.com/users' &&
$request['name'] == 'Taylor' &&
$request['role'] == 'Developer';
});
If needed, you may assert that a specific request was not sent using the assertNotSent
method:
use Illuminate\Http\Client\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;
Http::fake();
Http::post('http://example.com/users', [
'name' => 'Taylor',
'role' => 'Developer',
]);
Http::assertNotSent(function (Request $request) {
return $request->url() === 'http://example.com/posts';
});
Or, you may use the assertNothingSent
method to assert that no requests were sent during the test:
Http::fake();
Http::assertNothingSent();
Events
Laravel fires three events during the process of sending HTTP requests. The RequestSending
event is fired prior to a request being sent, while the ResponseReceived
event is fired after a response is received for a given request. The ConnectionFailed
event is fired if no response is received for a given request.
The RequestSending
and ConnectionFailed
events both contain a public $request
property that you may use to inspect the Illuminate\Http\Client\Request
instance. Likewise, the ResponseReceived
event contains a $request
property as well as a $response
property which may be used to inspect the Illuminate\Http\Client\Response
instance. You may register event listeners for this event in your App\Providers\EventServiceProvider
service provider:
/**
* The event listener mappings for the application.
*
* @var array
*/
protected $listen = [
'Illuminate\Http\Client\Events\RequestSending' => [
'App\Listeners\LogRequestSending',
],
'Illuminate\Http\Client\Events\ResponseReceived' => [
'App\Listeners\LogResponseReceived',
],
'Illuminate\Http\Client\Events\ConnectionFailed' => [
'App\Listeners\LogConnectionFailed',
],
];