How to validate HTTP request in Laravel - ios

Question

I have an iOS application that is making an HTTP request to a server/site that uses Laravel, everything is working fine but I would like to validate the HTTP request before returning any information. Right now the way it works is that you type example.com/zip-code/51751and the server responds to the request, what I want, is to make the server respond only to requests coming from the iOS app. What I was thinking is to hard-code a random key/token in both my iOS app and in the Laravel app and then include that key as part of my HTTP request, so that I can check the request to see if the key in the request matches the key in the server (.env file).
Here is the code I currently have that works fine but doesn't do the validation.
Routes File
Route::get('zip-code/{zipCode}', 'MyController#placeDescription');
Controller
class MyController extends Controller
{
public function placeDescription($zipCode)
{
$placeInfo = InfoDB::where('ZipCode', $zipCode)->get();
return ($placeInfo);
}
}
.env File
APP_NAME=Laravel
APP_ENV=local
APP_KEY=base64:GpyF4XKuxMqCfkylHfdsfFDSjfasdfFDgfsdGfdsFGffhg=
APP_URL=http://localhost
LOG_CHANNEL=stack
DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
...
iOS App / Swift
func descriptionForCurrentLocation(zipCode: String, completion:#escaping(_ placeDescription:String?) -> () ){
let siteLink = "http://example.com/zip-code/" + zipCode
let url = URL(string: siteLink)
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url!) { data, response, error in
guard error == nil else {
// ERROR
completion(nil)
return
}
guard let data = data else {
// Return, data is empty
completion(nil)
return
}
let json = try! JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: [])
guard let jsonArray = json as? [[String: String]] else {
// Return, the object returned by the server is not in the right format.
return
}
if jsonArray.isEmpty{
// Return, array is empty.
return
}else{
let description = jsonArray[0]["CityDescription"]!
completion(description)
}
}
task.resume()
}
How can I validate the HTTP request against a random key?
Edit:
Just for the record here is what I did in my iOS app to add the HTTP header. See Salman Zafars answer for details on how to do the validation in Laravel.
let siteLink = "http://example.com/zip-code/" + zipCode
let url = URL(string: siteLink)
var request = URLRequest(url: url!)
request.setValue("161jshghss", forHTTPHeaderField: "CustomKey")
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in
...

Answer 1

You can generate a single uuid for validating a request and to validate a request you can use below code
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
class MyController extends Controller
{
public function placeDescription(Request $request, $zipCode)
{
if($request->hasHeader('CustomKey') && $request->header('CustomKey') === "161jshghss")
{
$placeInfo = InfoDB::where('ZipCode', $zipCode)->get();
return ($placeInfo);
}
else
{
return response(['error' => 'Something is missing'], 403);
}
}
}
You have to set Custom Header in your ios app with the HeaderName and Headervalue and then you can use the above code.
Thanks.