Q:

Laravel 5 - global exception handler for API requesting non-exist object

I am using Laravel 5.3. I have few APIs where user will request for specific id. 
For example url to subscribe an event
example.com/api/event/{id}/subscribe
Normally if id not exist, Laravel will return response 500 with error message "Trying to get property of non-object"
So I would add check if event is exist like below in every controller where model 'id' id passed:
$event = Event::find($id)
if ($event) {
    // return json data
}
else {
    return response()->json([
        'status' => 'object not found'
    ], 404);
}

My question is, any better solution to handle this globally to check if object requested is not exist? My current solution is here, but I might think there should be better one
I add this code into my app/Exception/Handler.php, so every api request non-existing object will return 404 with specific json message. So the API consumer will know the object id not valid.
public function render($request, Exception $exception)
{
    // global exception handler if api request for non existing object id
    if ($request->wantsJson() && $exception->getMessage() == 'Trying to get property of non-object') {
        return response()->json([
            'status' => 'object requested not found'
        ], 404);
    }

    return parent::render($request, $exception);
}

Thanks in advance!

A:

You can use render() function of App\Exceptions\Handler class as:
public function render($request, Exception $exception)
{
    if ($request->wantsJson() && $exception instanceof ModelNotFoundException) {
        return response()->json(['status' => 'object requested not found'], 404);
    }

    return parent::render($request, $exception);
}

And remember to add following code:
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\ModelNotFoundException;

Docs

A:

Try changing your 
$event = Event::find($id)

to 
$event = Event::findOrFail($id)

As far I remember, it'll throw a ModelNotFoundException if it couldn't find anything for that id. Go to app/Exceptions/Handler.php and inside the render method, catch the exception and handle it.
Edited:
if ($e instanceof HttpResponseException) {
            return $e->getResponse();
        } elseif ($e instanceof ModelNotFoundException) {
            $e = new NotFoundHttpException($e->getMessage(), $e);
        } elseif ($e instanceof AuthenticationException) {
            return $this->unauthenticated($request, $e);
        } elseif ($e instanceof AuthorizationException) {
            $e = new HttpException(403, $e->getMessage());
        } elseif ($e instanceof ValidationException && $e->getResponse()) {
            return $e->getResponse();
        }

You can see that the parent render method fires a NotFoundHttpException if it gets a ModelNotFoundException exception. I guess you can overwrite it to match your requirement.

