HTTP Responses

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Overview

The Lyger\Http\Response class is a fluent HTTP response builder. It handles setting status codes, headers, and content — automatically detecting the correct Content-Type when you use the static factory methods.

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JSON Responses

The most common response type in API development:

use Lyger\Http\Response;

// Simple
return Response::json(['message' => 'Created']);

// With status code
return Response::json(['user' => $user->toArray()], 201);

// Arrays are automatically JSON-encoded
return Response::json([
    'data'  => $users,
    'total' => count($users),
    'page'  => 1,
]);

The Content-Type header is set to application/json automatically.

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HTML Responses

return Response::html('<h1>Hello World</h1>');
return Response::html($renderedTemplate, 200);

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Plain Text Responses

return Response::text('Hello, plain world!');
return Response::text('Service Unavailable', 503);

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Error Responses

return Response::error('Resource not found', 404);
return Response::error('Internal Server Error', 500);
return Response::error('Unauthorized', 401);

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Custom Status Codes

All static factory methods accept a status code as their second parameter:

return Response::json(['created' => true], 201);
return Response::json(['deleted' => true], 200);
return Response::json(['errors' => $errors], 422);
return Response::html($page, 404);

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Adding Custom Headers

The response builder is fluent — you can chain setHeader() calls:

return Response::json(['token' => $token])
    ->setHeader('Authorization', "Bearer {$token}")
    ->setHeader('X-Request-Id', uniqid());

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Reading Response Properties

$response = Response::json(['x' => 1], 201);

$response->getStatusCode();           // 201
$response->getContent();              // '{"x":1}'
$response->getHeader('Content-Type'); // 'application/json'

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Manual Constructor

You can also instantiate Response directly:

// Array → auto JSON
$response = new Response(['key' => 'value'], 200, [
    'X-Custom-Header' => 'my-value',
]);

// String → plain text
$response = new Response('raw content', 200);

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Sending the Response

In normal framework usage, send() is called automatically by the bootstrapper. You typically never call it yourself:

// Called internally by public/index.php:
$response->send();
// → Sends headers (status code + all set headers)
// → Outputs content body

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Method Reference

Method	Description
json(mixed $data, int $status = 200): Response	JSON response
html(string $html, int $status = 200): Response	HTML response
text(string $text, int $status = 200): Response	Plain text response
error(string $message, int $status = 500): Response	Error response
setHeader(string $key, string $value): self	Add/override header (fluent)
getStatusCode(): int	Get HTTP status code
getContent(): string	Get response body string
getHeader(string $key, ?string $default = null): ?string	Get header value
send(): void	Write headers and body to output

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Common Status Codes

Code	Meaning	Usage
200	OK	Successful GET/PUT
201	Created	Successful POST
204	No Content	Successful DELETE
400	Bad Request	Invalid input
401	Unauthorized	Missing/invalid auth
403	Forbidden	Insufficient permissions
404	Not Found	Resource doesn’t exist
422	Unprocessable Entity	Validation errors
500	Internal Server Error	Unexpected exception

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Auto-Detection

When a controller returns a non-Response value, the router automatically wraps it:

// Returning an array → JSON response
Route::get('/users', fn() => User::all()->toArray());

// Returning a string → text/html response
Route::get('/health', fn() => 'OK');

// Returning null → empty 200 response
Route::get('/ping', fn() => null);