Cant send paginate meta data with response()->json

Question

I have an api and I want to send some info to my clients. I'm using resource collection to do this.

    return response()->json([
        'data' => ProductResource::collection(Product::orderBy('id', 'DESC')->paginate(8)),
        'catdata' => CategoryResource::collection(Category::get()),
        'status' => "200"
    ]);

All things work but paginate meta data doesn't work. It doesnt send paginate data.

Answer 1

API Resources are not meant to be used with each other, meaning that Laravel will not be able to detect that you want pagination metadata because you are converting to JSON before Laravel can read it. You would be better off separating your API responses, and having your clients call the API twice.

public function products()
{
     return ProductResource::collection(Product::orderBy('id', 'DESC')->paginate(8));
}

public function categories()
{
     return CategoryResource::collection(Category::get());
}

You could also use the additional function on your ProductResource::collection call.

public function products()
{
     return ProductResource::collection(Product::orderBy('id', 'DESC')->paginate(8))->additional(['meta' => [
                'categories' => Category::get(),
            ]]);;
}