php 52 lines · 8 steps

Processing refunds safely in Laravel

An invokable Laravel controller validates a refund request, guards against duplicates, and wraps the payment call plus record creation in one transaction.

Explained by highlit
Laravel Intermediate dependency injection validation database transactions idempotency single-action controller
1<?php
2 
3namespace App\Http\Controllers;
4 
5use App\Models\Order;
6use App\Services\PaymentGateway;
7use Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse;
8use Illuminate\Http\Request;
9use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
10 
11class RefundOrderController extends Controller
12{
13 public function __construct(
14 private readonly PaymentGateway $gateway,
15 ) {
16 }
17 
18 public function __invoke(Request $request, Order $order): JsonResponse
19 {
20 $validated = $request->validate([
21 'amount' => ['required', 'numeric', 'min:0.01', 'max:' . $order->paid_amount],
22 'reason' => ['required', 'string', 'max:500'],
23 ]);
24 
25 if ($order->isRefunded()) {
26 return response()->json([
27 'message' => 'This order has already been refunded.',
28 ], 409);
29 }
30 
31 $refund = DB::transaction(function () use ($order, $validated) {
32 $charge = $this->gateway->refund(
33 chargeId: $order->charge_id,
34 amount: $validated['amount'],
35 );
36 
37 return $order->refunds()->create([
38 'transaction_id' => $charge->id,
39 'amount' => $validated['amount'],
40 'reason' => $validated['reason'],
41 'processed_by' => $order->user_id,
42 ]);
43 });
44 
45 $order->markAsRefunded();
46 
47 return response()->json([
48 'message' => 'Refund processed successfully.',
49 'refund' => $refund->only(['id', 'amount', 'transaction_id']),
50 ], 201);
51 }
52}
01 / 01
STEP 01

Walkthrough

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Three takeaways
  1. 1Wrapping an external call and its database write in one transaction keeps your records consistent with what actually happened.
  2. 2Checking for an already-completed action before doing work prevents costly duplicate operations.
  3. 3Constructor injection lets a controller declare its dependencies explicitly rather than reaching for globals.

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