Laravel Middleware return variable to controller
Stefan Bogdanescu
Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29
Title: Improving Laravel Application Performance by Sharing Data Between Middleware and Controller
Introduction: Laravel is an elegant PHP framework that allows developers to easily create powerful web applications using its robust set of features. One such feature is middleware, which handles requests before they reach the controller or view layer. In this post, we'll explore how sharing query results between middleware and controllers can enhance application performance by avoiding redundant database queries.
1. Understanding Middleware: Laravel middleware provides an easy way to manage authentication, authorization, or other aspects of your web application. It allows you to execute code before a request reaches the controller and allows you to return a response if the user does not have permission to access a specific resource.
2. Sharing Data Between Middleware and Controllers: By sharing data between middleware and controllers, we can reduce the number of database queries and avoid duplicating SQL statements. This in turn increases application performance by reducing the time taken to execute these tasks.
3. Example Code: Let's first look at an example demonstrating how we can share query results between middleware and controllers for a simple user permissions check scenario. In our case, we will be checking if a user with an authenticated session has already accessed the page they are requesting access to now.
- Routes.php: Update the route definition allowing users to check their page access history.
Route::get('pages/{id}/history', [
'as' => 'user_page_history',
'middleware' => 'checkUserPageAccessHistory',
'uses' => 'PagesController@showUserPageHistory'
]);
public function checkUserPageAccessHistory($request, Closure $next)
{
//get the page
$pageId = $request->route('id');
//find the page with users based on their access history records
$userPageAccessRecords = UserPageAccess::with('users')->where('user_id', Auth::user()->id)->where('page_id', $pageId)->get();
if($userPageAccessRecords->exists()) {
//if the user has previously accessed this page, return next middleware handler function
return $next($request);
} else {
//redirect them if they don't exist
return redirect()->route('redirectRoute');
}
}
public function showUserPageHistory($id)
{
//get the pagel with users based on their access history records
$userPageAccessRecords = UserPageAccess::with('users')->where('page_id', $id)->first();
return view('pages.view', ['userPageAccessRecords' => $userPageAccessRecords]);
}