How do I get HTTP Request body content in Laravel?

You can pass data as the third argument to call(). Or, depending on your API, it's possible you may want to use the sixth parameter.

From the docs:

$this->call($method, $uri, $parameters, $files, $server, $content);

For those who are still getting blank response with $request->getContent(), you can use:

$request->all()

e.g:

public function foo(Request $request){
   $bodyContent = $request->all();
}

I don't think you want the data from your Request, I think you want the data from your Response. The two are different. Also you should build your response correctly in your controller.

Looking at the class in edit #2, I would make it look like this:

class XmlController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        $content = Request::all();
        return Response::json($content);
    }
}

Once you've gotten that far you should check the content of your response in your test case (use print_r if necessary), you should see the data inside.

More information on Laravel responses here:

http://laravel.com/docs/5.0/responses

Inside controller inject Request object. So if you want to access request body inside controller method 'foo' do the following:

public function foo(Request $request){
    $bodyContent = $request->getContent();
}