0026-laravel-controller-cleanup

To keep Laravel controllers lean, shift authorization and validation into Form Request classes and extract business logic into Action or Service classes using Data Transfer Objects, ensuring controller methods only orchestrate the workflow.

The best way to move validation out of a Laravel controller is by creating a Form Request class, defining your authorization and rules methods there, and then type-hinting that custom Request object in your controller method signature.

Use a Laravel resource controller for standard REST CRUD endpoints to handle all default HTTP verbs, and use an invokable single-action controller for one-off route handlers or single-purpose endpoints that only need a single __invoke method.

Pass data to Laravel Actions or Services by converting validated request data into Data Transfer Objects, ensuring your business logic classes receive plain structured objects instead of direct HTTP request instances.

Yes, you can refactor a bloated Laravel controller by extracting validation into a Form Request, moving the core logic into an Action or Service that receives a DTO, and converting the controller to a resource or invokable structure.