Why $request is empty when I send post request to Laravel from C# App?

Question

I am trying to create a desktop app using c# that will manipulate my Laravel website's database(MySQL). So I am creating API routes to act as a middleman. I actually solved my issue by changing the code but did not understand why it was not working earlier. I am new to both Laravel & c# and coding some stuff just to learn some things.

---

This is my c# code to send a post request

  WebClient client = new WebClient();
        
  string postUrl = "http://mywebsite.com/api/v1/handshake";

  var reqparm = new System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection();
  reqparm.Add("param1", "<any> kinds & of = ? strings");
  reqparm.Add("param2", "testing parameter two");

  byte[] response= client.UploadValues(postUrl, reqparm);
  string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(response);
  MessageBox.Show(result);

This is my route in Laravel (Outside of middleware)

Route::prefix('v1')->group(function(){
  Route::post('handshake','Api\SomeController@handshake');
});

The problem that I'm curious about is when my controller was like this :

  public function handshake(Request $request)
  {
    return json_encode($request);
  }

Respone was : {"attributes":{},"request":{},"query":{},"server":{},"files":{},"cookies":{},"headers":{}}

When I change the handshake method to this :

  public function handshake(Request $request)
  {
    return json_encode($request->param2);
  }

The response was: "testing parameter two"

---

So I wonder why the response was empty when I returned json_encode($response). Is Illuminate Request a different type of object that causes this, or is it something else I am missing? It will be very helpful if you explain the reason why it's not worked

Answer 1

json_encodeing $request (or request()) doesn't display - (private) or # (protected) properties, only + (public). See this php artisan tinker example:

>>> request()
=> Illuminate\Http\Request {#70
  +attributes: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag {#75},
  +request: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag {#72},
  +query: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag {#77},
  +server: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ServerBag {#79},
  +files: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\FileBag {#73},
  +cookies: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag {#76},
  +headers: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\HeaderBag {#80},
}

As you can see, in Terminal access, it's only showing + (public) properties. Compare with dd(request()) (which shows all properties, regardless of access level):

>>> dd(request())
Illuminate\Http\Request^ {#70
  #json: null
  #convertedFiles: null
  #userResolver: null
  #routeResolver: null
  +attributes: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag^ {#75
    #parameters: []
  }
  +request: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag^ {#72
    #parameters: []
  }
  +query: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag^ {#77
    #parameters: []
  }
  +server: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ServerBag^ {#79
     #parameters: array:132 [...]
  }
  +files: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\FileBag^ {#73
    #parameters: []
  }
  +cookies: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\ParameterBag^ {#76
    #parameters: []
  }
  +headers: Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\HeaderBag^ {#80
    #headers: array:5 [...]
  }
  #content: null
  #languages: null
  #charsets: null
  #encodings: null
  #acceptableContentTypes: null
  #pathInfo: null
  #requestUri: null
  #baseUrl: null
  #basePath: null
  #method: null
  #format: null
  #session: null
  #locale: null
  #defaultLocale: "en"
  -preferredFormat: null
  -isHostValid: true
  -isForwardedValid: true
  pathInfo: "/"
  requestUri: "/"
  baseUrl: ""
  basePath: ""
  method: "GET"
  format: "html"
}

So, when you run json_encode($request), it converts that instance of Illuminate\Http\Request to json, but since most properties are # (protected) or - (private), a lot is stripped out. And even then, for the displayed properties, the only nested property is #parameters, which is protected, and thus stripped out.

So, json_encode(request()) produces the correct JSON:

{"attributes":{},"request":{},"query":{},"server":{},"files":{},"cookies":{},"headers":{}}