Getting "Class 'app\Http\Controllers\Controller' not found" in Laravel 5.1

Question

I'm quite new to Laravel and when I am going through a tutorial when I encountered this error. This is my code in 'testController.php'.

<?php

namespace app\Http\Controllers;

use app\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class testController extends \app\Http\Controllers\Controller {

public function getAbout()
{
    return view('Learning.about') ;
}

public function getHome()
{
    return view('Learning.index');
}

}

And this is my 'routes.php'.

<?php
Route::get('test', [
   'as' => 'test', 
   'uses' => 'testController@getHome',
]);

Route::get('about', [
    'as' => 'about', 
    'uses' => 'testController@getAbout',
]);

I am getting this error:

Class 'app\Http\Controllers\Controller' not found

How can I fix this error?

Are you generating via php artisan or you just created manually ? Can you try like php artisan make:controller TestController. So, you don't need to worry about namespace. It will be automatically generated. — 502_Geek, Nov 14 '16 at 02:13

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 18 '17 at 08:12

Let's go through this step by step.

1. Check autoload directive on composer.json

Open composer.json file on your project root directory. Locate the the autoload section. It should be looking like this:

{
    ...
    "autoload": {
        "classmap": [
            "database"
        ],
        "psr-4": {
            "App\\": "app/"
        }
    },
}

Make sure you have this configuration under the psr-4 option:

"App\\": "app/"

This configuration tells the composer that we want to autoload all classes inside the app directory using psr-4 convention and places it under the App namespace.

2. Update your controller

First, your controller file name should be in CamelCase style. So we have to renamed it to TestController.php. Make sure that it's saved under app/Http/Controllers directory.

Now open your TestController.php file, we have to capitalize the namespace and class name like so:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class TestController extends Controller {
    public function getAbout()
    {
        return view('Learning.about') ;
    }

    public function getHome()
    {
        return view('Learning.index');
    }
}

Note that we also turn this line:

class testController extends \app\Http\Controllers\Controller

Into:

class TestController extends Controller

Since we already import the base Controller class, we don't have to specify the fully qualified name. We imported the Controller class using the use keyword:

use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

Save your TestController.php file.

3. Update your routes file

Now we have to update our app\Http\routes.php file. We just need to capitalize the controller name:

<?php

Route::get('test', ['uses' => 'TestController@getHome', 'as' => 'test']);

Route::get('about', ['uses' => 'TestController@getAbout', 'as' => 'about']);

4 Update your autoloader

Now the last thing to do. Open your terminal / command prompt. Go to your project directory and run the following command:

composer dump-autoload

This command will update the autoloader file (Read more here).

Now if you open up your browser and hit /test route, you should see the content from resources/views/Learning/index.blade.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 13 '16 at 16:47

0

Use correct namespace:

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

// Remove: use app\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class testController extends Controller {

answered Nov 13 '16 at 16:47

Alexey Mezenin

158,981
26
290
279

You controller is in `app\Http\Controllers`, right? – Alexey Mezenin Nov 13 '16 at 16:49
Yes it is in the Controllers, same with 'testController'. – TheShark Nov 13 '16 at 16:53
Did you remove `use app\Http\Controllers\Controller;` line? – Alexey Mezenin Nov 13 '16 at 17:08
Yes I did but didn't do any difference. By the way, I just noticed that my Controller.php has the path 'App\Http\Controllers\Auth\Controller.php'. Does it affect here to the code ? – TheShark Nov 13 '16 at 17:45
If you still getting `app\..` message, then you didn't remove the line or didn't change namespace or `extends` part. The code above is from standard Laravel controller. Double check everything. – Alexey Mezenin Nov 13 '16 at 17:48

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 18 '17 at 08:13

0

According to my experience in Laravel projects, the namespaces starts with the capital A of App used in namespace, you should try to change your code to this:

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

class testController extends Controller { }

Also check if the controller - App\Http\Controllers\Controller lies in the same namespace as mentioned in your code.

edited Sep 18 '17 at 08:13

halfer

19,824
17
99
186

answered Nov 13 '16 at 17:05

Saumya Rastogi

13,159
5
42
45

Actually the Controller.php lies as 'App\Http\Controllers\Auth\Controller.php'. I don't think it makes any difference to the name space, do it ? – TheShark Nov 13 '16 at 17:44
I think the casing of letters differ according to different OS, like in mac it reacts to be right else in Ubuntu it reacts to be wrong, etc for other OS too – Saumya Rastogi Nov 13 '16 at 17:45

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 03 '18 at 07:35

0

Include this at the top of your Controller file. This fixed it for me.

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

answered Jul 03 '18 at 07:35

Sugoi Reed

457
5
3

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 29 '21 at 17:15

In some cases the problem is that the framework is not able to instantiate your given controller class. This can happen for example if you are using a sub-folder under Controllers and that when you are extending the Controller.php class, you did not provide the use statement to that definition*. Other run-time errors may also cause this.

*Which is now required since your own controller is not at the root of the Controller folder anymore.

Getting "Class 'app\Http\Controllers\Controller' not found" in Laravel 5.1

5 Answers5

1. Check autoload directive on composer.json

2. Update your controller

3. Update your routes file

4 Update your autoloader