Displaying the Error Messages in Laravel after being Redirected from controller
Stefan Izdrail
Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29
Title: Displaying Error Messages in Laravel after Redirecting from a Controller and Improving Form Validation
When developing web applications, displaying error messages is a crucial step to ensure users understand what went wrong and can fix any issues before trying again. In this blog post, we'll discuss how to display validation errors and messages as well as improve the form validation process in Laravel. We will also address issues like redirecting from controllers, using appropriate layouts, and optimizing the view for better user experience.
First, let's examine the code mentioned in the question:
```php
public function registerUser()
{
$firstname = Input::get('firstname');
$lastname = Input::get('lastname');
$data = Input::except(array('_token')) ;
$rule = array(
'firstname' => 'required',
'lastname' => 'required',
) ;
$validator = Validator::make($data,$rule);
if ($validator->fails())
{
$messages = $validator->messages();
return Redirect::to('/')->with('message', 'Register Failed');
}
else
{
DB::insert('insert into user (firstname, lastname) values (?, ?)',
array($firstname, $lastname));
return Redirect::to('/')->with('message', 'Register Success');
}
}
```
This code is doing the following:
1. Retrieving input data from the form using Input::get().
2. Creating an array of validation rules.
3. Using Validator to validate the input data against the specified rules.
4. Showing a generic error message upon failure and redirecting to '/', indicating that the user must re-enter data for these fields.
5. Successfully inserting data into the database or displaying an alternative success message after the registration process.
However, this code lacks proper error handling, and it doesn't show any specific validation errors in the view when redirected back to the form page. Let's first improve the controller code:
```php
public function registerUser()
{
$firstname = Input::get('firstname');
$lastname = Input::get('lastname');
$data = Input::except(array('_token')) ;
$rule = array(
'firstname' => 'required',
'lastname' => 'required',
) ;
$validator = Validator::make($data,$rule);
if ($validator->fails())
{
return Redirect::back()->withErrors($validator)
->withInput()
->with('message', 'Register Failed');
}
else
{
DB::insert('insert into user (firstname, lastname) values (?, ?)',
array($firstname, $lastname));
return Redirect::to('/')->with('message', 'Register Success');
}
}
```
This code:
1. Implements better error handling by redirecting back to the previous page with errors and input data.
2. Passes the validator object to the withErrors() method, which attaches the validation errors to the session.
3. Uses the withInput() method to preserve user-entered data in case they need to re-enter it upon returning to the form.
4. Displays a generic error message when redirected back to the form, instead of just mentioning "Register Failed."
Now let's focus on displaying error messages and improving form validation. We can create a custom validation message for each input field in our view using Arr::get() to access specified keys from the validation errors array:
```php
@if(Arr::has($errors, 'firstname'))
{{ $errors->first('firstname') }}
@endif
@if(Arr::has($errors, 'lastname'))
{{ $errors->first('lastname') }}
@endif
```
Using Arr::has(), we can check if the errors array has a specific key. In case it does, we display an error message using the first() method for the respective field. This allows us to show custom validation messages for each input field while ensuring that they are consistent and meaningful for the users.
In conclusion, by modifying our code as described above, we can improve both the functionality and user experience of error handling in Laravel applications. The final result should be an app with better validation handling, more organized code, improved error messages, and friendlier feedback to users upon errors or successes.