Laravel 5.x middleware to retrieve the version number from Node JS package.json

AppVersion.php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;

/**
 * Reads the current version of the app into an APP_VERSION variable by reading
 * the applications Node JS package.json file.
 *
 * Version number can be read back out using: config('APP_VERSION')
 */
class AppVersion
{
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        $metadata = json_decode(file_get_contents(base_path('package.json')));
        \Config::set('APP_VERSION', $metadata->version);

        return $next($request);
    }
}