Laravel 4 Ajax check to include XMLHttpRequest (fr

Question

Using the code from this question,

@extends('layouts.' . isset($ajax) ? 'ajax' : 'master')

to check for Ajax. It works for regular Ajax page loads but not when using a popup.

In this case I'm using Magnific Popup's Ajax mode, the request header is XMLHttpRequest but Laravel returns the non-ajax (extended) layout.

Answer 1

First of all I don't know how the $ajax variable is being set(isset($ajax)), but the right way to check for an ajax request in Laravel is

if(Request::ajax()) {
    // ...
}

Or, short form (using ternary operator in a single expression)

$ajax = Request::ajax() ? true : false;

So, according to your link of another answer, this should work

@extends(((Request::ajax()) ? 'layouts.ajax' : 'layouts.master'))

How this works ?

In vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Http there is a Request.php class you can see

/**
 * Determine if the request is the result of an AJAX call.
 * 
 * @return bool
 */
public function ajax()
{
    return $this->isXmlHttpRequest();
}

Here isXmlHttpRequest() is an extended method from Request.php class of Symphony, because Laravel's Request class extends Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request.php and in this class there is the main method which determines the ajax request by

public function isXmlHttpRequest()
{
    return 'XMLHttpRequest' == $this->headers->get('X-Requested-With');
}

So, if X-Requested-With request header is set then it's an ajax request and if this header is not sent then it's not an ajax request. So, the question is how isset($ajax) is being set and if it's set by you then the jQuery library you are using it is not doing it but it's sending X-Requested-With request header instead and in this case you should use Laravel's Request::ajax() method to determine the ajax request.

BTW, I would prefer to use a completely different view for ajax request which doesn't extend master layout. You may like this Detect Ajax Request-Php And Frameworks.