# Request/response customization

**URL:** <https://discourse.slimframework.com/t/request-response-customization/5493>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Created:** [January 25, 2023, 2:34pm UTC](https://discourse.slimframework.com/t/request-response-customization/5493 "2023-01-25T14:34:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![captainatwork](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.slimframework.com/captainatwork/32/1508_2.png) [@captainatwork](https://discourse.slimframework.com/u/captainatwork)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 2:34pm UTC](https://discourse.slimframework.com/t/request-response-customization/5493/1 "2023-01-25T14:34:29Z")

</div>

Hi!

I’m pretty new in slim framework and after working years with “company-made” products that doesn’t really follow norms and standards, i am a little bit lost trying to do something :

I’m looking for a way to implement new request (ServerRequestInterface) and responses (ResponseInterface) objects, just to add some custom codes, for example :  
a $request-\>trygetparam or trypostparam that would check if there is a param for a key given, and if not maybe throw an error.  
a “return $response-\>setJsonPayload($array)” that would do the work to json encode the array, put the header on the response and so on.

I know how i could do all of that with like a class with static function that would manipulate the request/response objects but i would really like to make the elements available on the objects themselves. Having my api class be like :

```php
public function details(MyCustomRequest $request, MyCustomReponse $response){
 $id = null;
  if($request->tryGetParam("", $id)){
    return $response->setJsonPayload(["id"=>$id]);
  }
 return $response->error(403, "missing param");
}

```

I hope i’m not asking too much (or too stupid).  
Thanks in advance.

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**Author:** ![odan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de053/32.png) [@odan](https://discourse.slimframework.com/u/odan)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://discourse.slimframework.com/t/request-response-customization/5493/2 "2023-01-25T18:34:21Z")

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Welcome @captainatwork

First you should note that Slim uses the PSR-7 standard for HTTP request and response objects. This means they are “immutable”. So every change the request/response headers must return a new (cloned) object. Second, my concern is that your approach does not comply with the PSR-7 standard and would make it later much harder to maintain.

If you are still sure to implement such an approach, you may take a look at the [slim/http](https://github.com/slimphp/Slim-Http#usage) project on Github. This package provides some decorators for the HTTP request and response objects.

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**Author:** ![awstam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@awstam](https://discourse.slimframework.com/u/awstam)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2023, 7:17am UTC](https://discourse.slimframework.com/t/request-response-customization/5493/3 "2023-01-27T07:17:13Z")

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as someone that went the “custom” request / response route. (and had a fight with odan 😛 ) i can safely say… dont bother with custom request / response. it WILL make your life harder (ive gone back to “mostly” vanilla slim as it really really just works)

> [@Slim 4 - Custom Request (extending the existing Request)](https://discourse.slimframework.com/t/slim-4-custom-request-extending-the-existing-request/4868/10):
>
> the more i think about your use case the more i think this “could” be handled via a middleware and inject an attribute into the normal request something along the lines of: Middleware whatevers public function \_\_invoke(Request $request, RequestHandler $handler): Response { $post = array(); foreach ((array)$request-\>getParsedBody() as $key=\>$value){ $post[$key]=funky\_moneky\_dance\_santize($value); } $request-\>withAttribute("post",$post); retu…

what i now use instead is a middleware that sets up the “parameters” onto the normal `$request->getAttribute()`

```auto
// TODO: sanitize the inputs
        foreach ((array)$request->getQueryParams() as $key => $value) {
            $request = $request->withAttribute("GET." . $key, $value);
        }
        foreach ((array)$request->getParsedBody() as $key => $value) {
            $request = $request->withAttribute("POST." . $key, $value);
        }

        foreach ((array)$route->getArguments() as $key => $value) {
            $request = $request->withAttribute("PARAM." . $key, $value);
        }

```

then usage in the controller is simply `$request->getAttribute("POST.name");`

also this might be of some use to you as well

> [@Type hinting $request-\>getAttribute("woof") / data from middleware](https://discourse.slimframework.com/t/type-hinting-request-getattribute-woof-data-from-middleware/5453):
>
> what is the preferred way to pass data from the middleware down to the route handler? the 3 options i can think of: middleware+ -\>withAttribute("woof",new WoofObject(...)) and in route /\*\* @var $woof WoofObject \*/ $woof-\>getAttribute("woof"); (ie type hinting the variable holding -\>getAttribute wherever its used with /\*\* @var - its usually not just a simple new object, im just using it as an eg here) not use the middleware in a traditional sense but to have an object that accepts the fu…

as for the response…

go with something like

> <https://github.com/odan/slim4-skeleton/tree/master/src/Renderer>
>
> //github.com/odan/slim4-skeleton/tree/master/src/Renderer

```auto
use System\Responders\Responder;
class JobsController {
    function __construct(
        protected Responder $responder,
    ) { }

    public function __invoke(Request $request, Response $response): Response {

    	// ...

    	return $this->responder->withResponse(
            response: $response,
            data: $data,
            errors: $errors,
        );
    }
}

```

this lets you use your container (php-di?) in the responder as well. gives you a TON of extra options for a few bits of extra boiler plate. but it makes it super easy to switch our responders then

slim middleware is super super super strong.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![captainatwork](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.slimframework.com/captainatwork/32/1508_2.png) [@captainatwork](https://discourse.slimframework.com/u/captainatwork)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2023, 3:28pm UTC](https://discourse.slimframework.com/t/request-response-customization/5493/4 "2023-01-27T15:28:52Z")

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thanks both of you for your answers. @odan was on point with slim/http which was basically what i was looking for, without need for me to implement a new one.

i understand that i may lose a little bit of PSR-compatibility but for the sake of simplicity for my team and myself i think it’s a fair trade to have a little bit of easy-to-use decorators (especially because, the way i managed to use it, it’s really localized to specific controllers, and doesn’t damage the framework itself). so i went with it and it worked really well.

but anyway, thanks again, and thanks to slimPHP for existing, it’s by far the simplest, and (for lack of a better term) “cutest” framework out there.