Starting with Laravel 11: Form Submission, Validation, and Error Handling

Dilip Published: Categories: Laravel

Form handling and validation are essential parts of any web application. Laravel 11 simplifies this process with built-in validation features, CSRF protection, and error handling in Blade templates.

In this guide, we’ll walk through creating a simple form, validating fields, and displaying error messages in Laravel 11.

1. Creating a Simple Form in Blade

Let’s start by creating a basic form with a username and password field in a Blade template. Ensure you include the CSRF token to prevent the ‘419 Page Expired’ error.

<!-- resources/views/login.blade.php -->
<form action="{{ route('login.submit') }}" method="POST">
    @csrf  <!-- CSRF token for security -->
    
    <label for="username">Username:</label>
    <input type="text" name="username" value="{{ old('username') }}">
    @error('username')
        <div style="color: red;">{{ $message }}</div>
    @enderror
    
    <label for="password">Password:</label>
    <input type="password" name="password">
    @error('password')
        <div style="color: red;">{{ $message }}</div>
    @enderror
    
    <button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>

2. Setting Up Routes

Next, define a route to handle form submission in routes/web.php:

Route::get('/login', function () {
    return view('login');
});

Route::post('/login', [AuthController::class, 'submit'])->name('login.submit');

3. Creating the Controller

Generate a controller using Artisan: php artisan make:controller AuthController

Then, update app/Http/Controllers/AuthController.php with validation logic:

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class AuthController extends Controller
{
    public function submit(Request $request)
    {
        $request->validate([
            'username' => 'required|min:3',
            'password' => 'required|max:8'
        ]);

        // Display the submitted data for testing (you can later modify this)
        return back()->with('success', 'Form submitted successfully!');
    }
}

4. Displaying Validation Errors

Laravel automatically redirects back with errors if validation fails. We use the @error directive in Blade to display these errors.

Additionally, to show a success message:

@if(session('success'))
    <div style="color: green;">{{ session('success') }}</div>
@endif

Conclusion

In this guide, we covered how to:

  • Create a form in a Blade template
  • Protect the form with CSRF tokens
  • Validate input fields using Laravel’s validate method
  • Display error messages using @error

This is a fundamental concept in Laravel development. You can expand this by handling authentication, integrating databases, or redirecting users upon successful login!