Laravel extending class

Question

Are there any other steps required to extend a class in Laravel 3?

I created application/libraries/response.php:

class Response extends Laravel\Response {

    public static function json($data, $status = 200, $headers = array(), $json_options = 0)
    {
        $headers['Content-Type'] = 'application/json; charset=utf-8';

        if(isset($data['error']))
        {
            $status = 400;
        }

        dd($data);

        return new static(json_encode($data, $json_options), $status, $headers);
    }

    public static function my_test()
    {
        return var_dump('expression');
    }

}

But for some reason, neither the my_test() function, or the modified json() function works.

In my controller, I do the following:

Response::my_test();
// or
$response['error']['type']    = 'existing_user';
Response::json($response);

And none work, what am I missing?

Answer 1

You should add a name space first - like this:

file: application/libraries/extended/response.php

<?php namespace Extended;

class Response extends \Laravel\Response {

  public static function json($data, $status = 200, $headers = array(), $json_options = 0)
  {
    $headers['Content-Type'] = 'application/json; charset=utf-8';

    if(isset($data['error']))
    {
        $status = 400;
    }

    dd($data);

    return new static(json_encode($data, $json_options), $status, $headers);
  }

  public static function my_test()
  {
    return var_dump('expression');
  }
}

Then inside config/application.php you need to change the alias

 'Response'     => 'Extended\\Response',

Then in start.php

Autoloader::map(array(
    'Extended\\Response' => APP_PATH.'libraries/extended/response.php',
));

Answer 2

Actually, the proper way to extend a library would be the following:

1. Create response.php in application/libraries/
2. Inside it, extend the class the following way: class Response extends \Laravel\Response
3. Comment 'Response' => 'Laravel\\Response' in application/config/application.php

Tested and it works. That's how I do it now