Laravel 5 Form Request data pre-manipulation

in laravel 5.1 you can do that

<?php namespace App\Http\Requests;class UpdateSettingsRequest extends Request {public function authorize(){    return true;}public function rules(){    return [];}protected function getValidatorInstance(){    $data = $this->all();    $data['date_of_birth'] = 'test';    $this->getInputSource()->replace($data);    /*modify data before send to validator*/    return parent::getValidatorInstance();}

Since Laravel 5.4, you can use the prepareForValidation method on FormRequest classes.

<?phpnamespace App\Http\Requests;use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;class StorePostRequest extends FormRequest{    /**     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.     *     * @return array     */    public function rules()    {        return [            'title' => 'required|max:200',            'body' => 'required',            'tags' => 'required|array|max:10',            'is_published' => 'required|boolean',            'author_name' => 'required',        ];    }    /**     * Prepare the data for validation.     *     * @return void     */    protected function prepareForValidation()    {        $this->merge([            'title' => fix_typos($this->title),            'body' => filter_malicious_content($this->body),            'tags' => convert_comma_separated_values_to_array($this->tags),            'is_published' => (bool) $this->is_published,        ]);    }}

There's a more detailed write-up here:https://sampo.co.uk/blog/manipulating-request-data-before-performing-validation-in-laravel

Note: This question and answer were both posted before Laravel 5.1 was released and both target 5.0. For 5.1 and above, see this answer by @Julia Shestakova or this answer by @BenSampo for a more modern solution.

After some messing around myself I've come up with the following:

app/Http/Requests/Request.php

<?php namespace App\Http\Requests;use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;abstract class Request extends FormRequest {    /**    * Override the initialize method called from the constructor to give subclasses    * an opportunity to modify the input before anything happens.    *    * @param array $query    * @param array $request    * @param array $attributes    * @param array $cookies    * @param array $files    * @param array $server    * @param null $content    */    public function initialize(array $query = array(), array $request = array(), array $attributes = array(), array $cookies = array(), array $files = array(), array $server = array(), $content = null)    {        parent::initialize($query, $request, $attributes, $cookies, $files, $server, $content);        // Grab the input        $data = $this->getInputSource()->all();        // Pass it off to modifyInput function        $data = $this->modifyInput($data);        // Replace modified data back into input.        $this->getInputSource()->replace($data);    }    /**    * Function that can be overridden to manipulate the input data before anything    * happens with it.    *    * @param array $data The original data.    * @return array The new modified data.    */    public function modifyInput(array $data)    {        return $data;    }}

Then on extending classes you can just override the modifyInput method like this:

app/Http/Requests/TestRequest.php

<?php namespace App\Http\Requests;class TestRequest extends Request {    public function authorize()    {        return true;    }    public function rules()    {        return [];    }    /**     * Modify the input.     */    public function modifyInput(array $data)    {        $data['date_of_birth'] = 'something';        // Make sure to return it.        return $data;    }}

This seems to work for my needs. I'm not sure of any drawbacks of doing it this way so I welcome any comments/criticism.

The answer given by The Shift Exchange above will also work just fine.