404 URLs does not pass through web Middlewares in Laravel 11, php8.2 and TwillCMS 1.11.1. What is the solution to this problem?

In Laravel, middleware is a component that sits between the incoming request and the response. Middleware can be used to perform various tasks such as authentication, rate limiting, CSRF protection, and more. However, when it comes to handling 404 URLs, Laravel has a specific way of handling them without involving middleware.

In Laravel 11, php8.2, and TwillCMS 1.11.1, if you are experiencing an issue where 404 URLs are not passing through web middlewares, it is likely due to the way Laravel handles 404 errors.

By default, Laravel uses a RouteServiceProvider to register all the routes in the application. When a requested route is not found, Laravel will automatically return a 404 response without invoking any middleware. This behavior is intentional and is part of Laravel's routing system.

However, if you still want to apply middleware to 404 responses, you can define a route with a 404 status code explicitly. Here's how you can do it:

Define a new route in your routes/web.php file:

Route::get('/404', function () {
    return view('errors.404');
})->name('404')->middleware('middleware_name');

Replace middleware_name with the name of the middleware you want to apply to the 404 response.

Create a new view file errors.404.blade.php in the resources/views/errors directory:

@extends('layouts.app')

@section('content')
<div class="container">
    <div class="row justify-content-center">
        <div class="col-md-8">
            <div class="alert alert-danger">
                <strong>404</strong> Page not found.
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
@endsection

Update your app/Exceptions/Handler.php file to return the 404 route instead of the default 404 response:

use Illuminate\Foundation\Exceptions\Handler as ExceptionHandler;
use Illuminate\Http\Response;
use Illuminate\Routing\Route;

class Handler extends ExceptionHandler
{
    // ...

    /**
     * Create a response object for the given exception.
     *
     * @param  \Throwable  $e
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function render($request, \Throwable $e)
    {
        if ($e instanceof ModelNotFoundException) {
            $model = class_basename($e->getModel());
            $id = $e->getMessage();
            $route = Route::getRouteFor('404');
            return redirect()->route('404')->with('model', $model)->with('id', $id);
        }

        if ($request->expectsJson()) {
            return response()->json($this->convertErrorToArray($e), $e->getStatusCode());
        }

        return $request->user() ? $this->renderCustomError($request, $e) : $this->renderError($request, $e);
    }
}

This code snippet checks if the exception is a ModelNotFoundException, which is the exception thrown when a route is not found. If that's the case, it redirects the user to the 404 route with the model name and ID as query parameters.

With these changes, you should be able to apply middleware to 404 responses in Laravel 11, php8.2, and TwillCMS 1.11.1.