In laravel 11 and 12, making routes files and applying middleware and domain is difficult.

[bhojkamal]

In Laravel 11 and 12, making routes custom files and applying middleware, add domain to route files is difficult; may be it is possible for some or few developers, However, I am also senior developer working on Laravel for 4 years and php for 7 years. I am trying to add middleware to just api or just api.php for few day, but I could not apply the custom middleware to routes files and also applying the domain to particular route file. It was quite easy in laravel 8, 9 or 10. Are you making laravel framework harder for such customizing or adding such bit thing, I could not understand.

<?php

use App\Http\Middleware\IdentifyTenant;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Application;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Exceptions;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Middleware;

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
  ->withRouting(
    web: __DIR__ . '/../routes/web.php',
    api: __DIR__ . '/../routes/api.php',
    commands: __DIR__ . '/../routes/console.php',
    health: '/up',
    // then: function () {
    //   Route::middleware(['api', 'identify.tenant'])
    //     ->prefix('api')
    //     ->name('api.')
    //     ->group(base_path('routes/api.php'));
    // }
  )
  ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
    $middleware->trustProxies(at: '*');
    $middleware->append(IdentifyTenant::class);
    // $middleware->prependToGroup('api', IdentifyTenant::class);

    $middleware->api(prepend:[
      IdentifyTenant::class,
    ]);

    $middleware->alias([
      'identify.tenant' => IdentifyTenant::class,
    ]);

    $middleware->web(append: [
      \App\Http\Middleware\HandleInertiaRequests::class,
      \Illuminate\Http\Middleware\AddLinkHeadersForPreloadedAssets::class,
    ]);

    //
  })
  ->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions) {
    //
  })->create();

I tried to apply ItendifyTenant class to api.php files. but it was not succeed.

[macropay-solutions]

There is a saying in marketing: "Don't make it better, make it different!"

[mbabker]

Are you making laravel framework harder for such customizing, I could not understand.

IMO the design introduced in Laravel 11 is great for the folks who are sticking close to the framework and only adding capabilities (installing new packages, adding new middleware, etc.). It's not so great if you're making customizations to the default install (removing unused config, removing unused components, changing the default middleware stack for web, etc.) and the more you try to customize the quicker it feels like the solution is to move back toward the Laravel 10 scaffolding and own the full configuration and own your kernels. The application builder just feels too opinionated for anything more complex than the "clone a starter kit and get going" approach.

[macropay-solutions]

@bhojkamal You made us courious and we started creating a laravel 12 from scratch for our free crud lib suite.

First big question:

// RouteServiceProviders
    public function boot(): void
    {
        $this->routes(function () {
            Route::middleware('api')
                ->prefix('api')
                ->group(base_path('routes/api.php'));

            Route::middleware('api')
                ->prefix('api-decorated')
                ->group(base_path('routes/api-decorated.php')); // how to register this?

            Route::middleware('web')->prefix('laravel-lumen-crud-wizard')
                ->group(base_path('routes/web.php'));
        });
    }

//app.php

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
    ->withRouting(
        web: __DIR__.'/../routes/web.php',
        api: __DIR__.'/../routes/api.php',
        commands: __DIR__.'/../routes/console.php',
        health: '/up',
    )
    ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
        //
    })
    ->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions) {
        //
    })->create();

[macropay-solutions]

We solved it somehow by using laravel 10 example.

This is not usable:

We replaced it with:

Laravel 12 demo page https://laravel-crud-wizard.com/laravel-12-free/laravel-lumen-crud-wizard

Example integration https://github.com/macropay-solutions/laravel-crud-wizard-decorator-free-demo/commits/production/

@mbabker @bhojkamal

[rodrigopedra]

@macropay-solutions

Perhaps this will look interesting to you. We created invokable classes for each configuration and placed them close to where they used to be in previous versions.

This is how our ./bootstrap/app.php file looks like:

<?php

use App\Console\Scheduler;
use App\Exceptions\ExceptionHandler;
use App\Http\MiddlewareConfigurator;
use App\Http\RoutesConfigurator;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Application;

return Application::configure(basePath: \dirname(__DIR__))
    ->withRouting(\Closure::fromCallable(new RoutesConfigurator()))
    ->withCommands([\dirname(__DIR__) . '/routes/console.php'])
    ->withMiddleware(new MiddlewareConfigurator())
    ->withEvents(discover: false)
    ->withExceptions(new ExceptionHandler())
    ->withSchedule(new Scheduler())
    ->create();

And this is one of the invokable classes:

<?php

namespace App\Console;

use Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule;

class Scheduler
{
    public function __invoke(Schedule $schedule): void
    {
        $schedule->command('app:clear-old-files')
            ->evenInMaintenanceMode()
            ->withoutOverlapping()
            ->dailyAt('00:01');

        // other commands
    }
}

[macropay-solutions]

@rodrigopedra

"The known route is always faster."

It seems like "Laravel has filed for divorce in regards to API" by doing 2 things:

1. Deprecating Lumen.
2. Introducing the bootstrap changes in version 11.

[bhojkamal]

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
  ->withRouting(
    web: __DIR__ . '/../routes/web.php',
    // api: __DIR__ . '/../routes/api.php',
    commands: __DIR__ . '/../routes/console.php',
    health: '/up',
    then: function () {
      Route::middleware(['api', 'identify.tenant'])
        ->prefix('api')
        ->name('api.')
        ->group(base_path('routes/api.php'));
    }
  )
  ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
    $middleware->trustProxies(at: '*');
    // $middleware->append(IdentifyTenant::class);
    $middleware->prependToGroup('api', IdentifyTenant::class);

    $middleware->api(prepend: [
      IdentifyTenant::class,
    ]);

    $middleware->alias([
      'identify.tenant' => IdentifyTenant::class,
    ]);

    $middleware->web(append: [
      \App\Http\Middleware\HandleInertiaRequests::class,
      \Illuminate\Http\Middleware\AddLinkHeadersForPreloadedAssets::class,
    ]);

    //
  })
  ->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions) {
    //
  })->create();

I need to apply IdentifyTenant::class middleware to the api files totally. better with domian to config('config.domain.api') too.
when I do above the IdentifyTenant is not applied at all.

[rodrigopedra]

With this ./bootstrap/app.php file:

<?php

use Illuminate\Foundation\Application;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Exceptions;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Middleware;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
    ->withRouting(
        web: __DIR__ . '/../routes/web.php',
        commands: __DIR__ . '/../routes/console.php',
        health: '/up',
        then: function () {
            Route::middleware(['identify.tenant', 'api'])
                ->prefix('api')
                ->name('api.')
                ->group(base_path('routes/api.php'));
        },
    )
    ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
        $middleware->trustProxies(at: '*');

        $middleware->alias([
            'identify.tenant' => \App\Http\Middleware\IdentifyTenant::class,
        ]);

        $middleware->web(append: [
            \App\Http\Middleware\HandleInertiaRequests::class,
            \Illuminate\Http\Middleware\AddLinkHeadersForPreloadedAssets::class,
        ]);
        //
    })
    ->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions) {
        //
    })
    ->create();

And this ./routes/api.php file:

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::get('/test', fn () => 'ok')->name('test');

And with this ./app/Http/Middleware/IdentifyTenant.php implementation:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

class IdentifyTenant
{
    public function handle($request, $next)
    {
        echo time(), \PHP_EOL;

        return $next($request);
    }
}

I get this routes:list output:

$ php artisan route:list --path=api -v

  GET|HEAD       api/test ....................................................................................... api.test
                 ⇂ identify.tenant
                 ⇂ api

                                                                                                        Showing [1] routes

And this output from the route:

$ curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/test
1743335387
ok

[bhojkamal]

Thanks for your effort and attempt but that does not work at all. I don't know, it might work in your case but for my ItenditfyTenant middleware does not work.
I tried all those options before too and again I modified in bootstrap/app.php like yours and didn't work at all. However I got solution 2 days ago by apply the IdentifyTenant globally as this -> $middleware->append(IdentifyTenant::class); app.php and modified this middleware. So, this applied to all routes. but I filter it in my custom middleware. basically, it is identify the db for tenant.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;
.... all imports
class IdentifyTenant
{
  public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
  {
    $tenantIdentifier = null;

    // 1️⃣ First, check for X-Tenant header (Postman or API clients)
    if ($request->hasHeader('X-Tenant')) {
      $tenantIdentifier = $request->header('X-Tenant');
    }
    // 2️⃣ Otherwise, try to get tenant from subdomain
    else {
      $hostParts = explode('.', $request->getHost());
      if (count($hostParts) > 2) { // Ensure it's a subdomain (e.g., tenant.yourdomain.com)
        $tenantIdentifier = $hostParts[0];
      }
    }

    // 3️⃣ Validate tenant identifier
    if (!$tenantIdentifier) {
      // Config::set('database.default', 'master');
      // DB::purge('master');
      // DB::reconnect('master');

      // return $next($request);

      return response()->json(['error' => 'Tenant identifier required (subdomain or X-Tenant header)'], 400);
    }

    // 4️⃣ Fetch tenant from cache or database
    $tenant = Cache::remember("tenant_{$tenantIdentifier}", 3600, function () use ($tenantIdentifier) {
      return Tenant::where('subdomain', $tenantIdentifier)
        ->orWhere('db_name', $tenantIdentifier)
        ->first();
    });

    if (!$tenant) {
      return response()->json(['error' => 'Tenant not found'], 404);
    }

    // 5️⃣ Configure database connection dynamically
    Config::set('database.connections.tenant.database', $tenant->db_name);

    // 6️⃣ Refresh the tenant database connection
    DB::purge('tenant');
    DB::reconnect('tenant');
    DB::setDefaultConnection('tenant');

    return $next($request);
  }

so the step in 3, I made if don't have header then it is master db.

    // 3️⃣ Validate tenant identifier
    if (!$tenantIdentifier) {
       Config::set('database.default', 'master');
       DB::purge('master');
       DB::reconnect('master');

       return $next($request);

      //return response()->json(['error' => 'Tenant identifier required (subdomain or X-Tenant header)'], 400);
    }

if the middleware worked from bootstrap/app.php. I can just do following in step 3

return response()->json(['error' => 'Tenant identifier required (subdomain or X-Tenant header)'], 400);

[bhojkamal]

The laravel should have options to apply middleware to specific route files too.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;
.... all imports
class IdentifyTenant
{
  public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
  {
    $tenantIdentifier = null;

    // 1️⃣ First, check for X-Tenant header (Postman or API clients)
    if ($request->hasHeader('X-Tenant')) {
      $tenantIdentifier = $request->header('X-Tenant');
    }
    // 2️⃣ Otherwise, try to get tenant from subdomain
    else {
      $hostParts = explode('.', $request->getHost());
      if (count($hostParts) > 2) { // Ensure it's a subdomain (e.g., tenant.yourdomain.com)
        $tenantIdentifier = $hostParts[0];
      }
    }

    // 3️⃣ Validate tenant identifier
    if (!$tenantIdentifier) {
       Config::set('database.default', 'master');
       DB::purge('master');
       DB::reconnect('master');

       return $next($request);

      // return response()->json(['error' => 'Tenant identifier required (subdomain or X-Tenant header)'], 400);
    }

    // 4️⃣ Fetch tenant from cache or database
    $tenant = Cache::remember("tenant_{$tenantIdentifier}", 3600, function () use ($tenantIdentifier) {
      return Tenant::where('subdomain', $tenantIdentifier)
        ->orWhere('db_name', $tenantIdentifier)
        ->first();
    });

    if (!$tenant) {
      return response()->json(['error' => 'Tenant not found'], 404);
    }

    // 5️⃣ Configure database connection dynamically
    Config::set('database.connections.tenant.database', $tenant->db_name);

    // 6️⃣ Refresh the tenant database connection
    DB::purge('tenant');
    DB::reconnect('tenant');
    DB::setDefaultConnection('tenant');

    return $next($request);
  }

[macropay-solutions]

Did you try what we suggested instead of trying to adopt this laravel 11-12 "new and better" solution?

[rodrigopedra]

@bhojkamal works fine with the code I sent you

I set up a test repository, please installation instruction in the README.md file at:

https://github.com/rodrigopedra/discussions-55182

The only change I made to the original middleware, was filtering out IPs when checking for subdomains:

https://github.com/rodrigopedra/discussions-55182/blob/4c4c96c0e8e19249fb02ebeefaa1ec36eeca005a/app/Http/Middleware/IdentifyTenant.php#L22-L29

There are two commits on this test repository:

• First one is base Laravel code, created with laravel new discussion-55182 --git
• Second is added code

Test output:

$ curl -X GET --location "http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/test" -H "X-Tenant: foo"
{"host":["127.0.0.1:8000"],"user-agent":["curl\/8.12.1"],"accept":["*\/*"],"x-tenant":["foo"]}

Note: tenant foo is added by php artisan db:seed

$ curl -X GET --location "http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/test" -H "X-Tenant: bar"
{"error":"Tenant not found"}

Note: tenant bar does not exist

[rodrigopedra]

@bhojkamal

I added a refactored version of the IdentifyTenant middleware to the branch dev, on the same repository above. Which is, in my opinion, a bit cleaner.

[gashra-aecor]

@bhojkamal Here is the beautiful documentation for it.
You should do this exactly as per the documentation.
https://laravel.com/docs/11.x/routing#routing-customization

And if it is now working on your end then you need to clear the cache.
Thanks.