laravel-blog/app/Http/Controllers/Controller.php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Bus\DispatchesJobs;
use Illuminate\Routing\Controller as BaseController;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Validation\ValidatesRequests;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\Access\AuthorizesRequests;

class Controller extends BaseController
{
    use AuthorizesRequests, DispatchesJobs, ValidatesRequests;

    /* helper */

    protected function parseToArray($obj)
    {
        if ($obj) {
            $obj = $obj->toArray();
        } else {
            $obj = array();
        }

        return $obj;
    }
}