Better way to filter a route by query parameter?

Question

In a Laravel 4.2 project, I have the following route:

Route::group(['prefix' => 'api/v' . Config::get('api.version')], function () {
    if (Input::get('api_key') != Config::get('api.key')) {
        App::abort(401, 'Invalid API key!');
    }

    // Do stuff below...
});

This is accessed by:

http://domain.com/api/v1/do-stuff/value1/value2?api_key=2fl2bkqg2yqlf2l872qa

This works great for users to access the API with their key. However, when I run php artisan migrate --seed it triggers that api_key restriction.

Is there a better way of restricting my route group by API key in Laravel that won't cause this issue with migrations?

Answer 1

When the route group is created, the API check is run instantly despite no route in the group being triggered. You can add the logic to a filter leaving the group to hold just the routes to avoid this and have the api check executed only when a route is filtered by it.

Route::filter("api", function()
{
    if (Input::get('api_key') != Config::get('api.key')) 
    {
        return App::abort(401, 'Invalid API key!');
    }
});

Then in your route group remove the inline code and add the filter

Route::group(array('prefix' => 'api/v1', 'before' => 'api'), function()
{
    // Routes here
});

As these are filters, they are disabled for unit tests. As the filter is only ever run when a route is executed in this group, artisan commands won't trigger the api check when the route group is created.