Route middleware in Laravel - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Laravel Route Middleware Setup

📖 Scenario: You are building a Laravel web application that has a special admin section. You want to make sure only authenticated users can access the admin routes.

🎯 Goal: Create a route middleware that checks if a user is authenticated before allowing access to the admin routes.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a middleware class named CheckAuthenticated

Register the middleware in the HTTP kernel with the key auth.check

Apply the auth.check middleware to the /admin/dashboard route

Ensure the middleware redirects unauthenticated users to the /login page

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Middleware is used in Laravel apps to control access and modify requests before they reach your routes or controllers.

💼 Career

Understanding middleware is essential for Laravel developers to implement security, logging, and request filtering in real projects.

1

Create the middleware class

Create a middleware class named CheckAuthenticated inside the app/Http/Middleware directory. The class should have a handle method that accepts $request, Closure $next, and returns $next($request).

Laravel

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class CheckAuthenticated
{
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Middleware classes go in app/Http/Middleware. The handle method is required and must return $next($request) to continue the request.

2

Add authentication check in middleware

Inside the handle method of CheckAuthenticated, add a condition to check if the user is not authenticated using auth()->check(). If not authenticated, redirect to /login. Otherwise, continue the request with $next($request).

Laravel

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class CheckAuthenticated
{
    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
    {
        // Your code here
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use auth()->check() to verify if the user is logged in. Redirect unauthenticated users to /login.

3

Register the middleware in HTTP kernel

Open app/Http/Kernel.php and add the middleware class \App\Http\Middleware\CheckAuthenticated::class to the $routeMiddleware array with the key 'auth.check'.

Laravel

<?php

protected $routeMiddleware = [
    // Your code here
];

Need a hint?

Register your middleware in the $routeMiddleware array in Kernel.php so you can use it in routes.

4

Apply middleware to admin route

In routes/web.php, create a route for /admin/dashboard that returns the string 'Admin Dashboard'. Apply the middleware 'auth.check' to this route using the middleware method.

Laravel

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Route::get() to define the route and chain ->middleware('auth.check') to apply your middleware.