How to use a controller to create a JSON feed

Rather than trying to build a JSON object in your Statamic template, which would result in a giant mess of curly braces, you can instead use a controller route and a controller in your site helpers directory.

In your routes file, add a route for accessing your feed, and point it at the controller:

routes:
  /feed.json: FeedController@json

The controller referenced in that route will be Statamic\SiteHelpers\FeedController, which can be generated with the following command:

php please make:controller-helper feed

Then, the controller’s json method can output an array.

<?php

namespace Statamic\SiteHelpers;

use Statamic\API\Entry;
use Statamic\Extend\Controller;

class FeedController extends Controller
{
    public function json()
    {
        return [
            'version' => 'https://jsonfeed.org/version/1',
            'title' => 'My Awesome Site',
            'home_page_url' => 'https://my-awesome-site.com/',
            'feed_url' => 'https://my-awesome-site.com/feed.json',
            'items' => $this->getItems()
        ];
    }

    private function getItems()
    {
        return Entry::whereCollection('blog')->map(function ($entry) {
            return [
                'id' => $url = $entry->url(),
                'url' => $url,
                'content_html' => markdown($entry->content()),
            ];
        })->all();
    }
}

If your controller returns an array, Laravel will know to convert it to a JSON response automatically.

Of course, this is just an example. You can customize and tweak this to your heart’s content.