Laravel 8.x 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 head, 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;
$response->json($key = null) : array|mixed;
$response->object() : object;
$response->collect($key = null) : Illuminate\Support\Collection;
$response->status() : int;
$response->ok() : bool;
$response->successful() : bool;
$response->redirect(): 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();

// Immediately execute the given callback if there was a client or server error...
$response->onError(callable $callback);

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();

Macros

The Laravel HTTP client allows you to define "macros", which can serve as a fluent, expressive mechanism to configure common request paths and headers when interacting with services throughout your application. To get started, you may define the macro within the boot method of your application's App\Providers\AppServiceProvider class:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

/**
 * Bootstrap any application services.
 *
 * @return void
 */
public function boot()
{
    Http::macro('github', function () {
        return Http::withHeaders([
            'X-Example' => 'example',
        ])->baseUrl('https://github.com');
    });
}

Once your macro has been configured, you may invoke it from anywhere in your application to create a pending request with the specified configuration:

$response = Http::github()->get('/');

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: 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';
});

You may use the assertSentCount method to assert how many requests were "sent" during the test:

Http::fake();

Http::assertSentCount(5);

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',
    ],
];