framework: [5.2] No errors in session after validation fails

EDIT! I found the problem >> see second post

I was following Task List, Intermediate Task List and even ‘Project Flyer’ on Laracasts. There is a problem with displaying errors after a failing validation.

I created a very basic ‘contactform’, one index/form and one POST with validation. When validation is OK, the behavior is as expected. When validation fails, the errors are not in $errors. I do NOT use authentication, nor a database. I tried it with FormRequest and with basic $request/validation methods.

Besides that, (re)filling forms with value=“{{ old(‘name’) }}” also does not work…

And yes, I did put my routes in the web group middleware.

Routes snippet

Route::group(['middleware' => ['web']], function () {
    //Route::resource('contact', 'ContactController');
    Route::get('/contactform', 'ContactController@index');
    Route::post('/contact', 'ContactController@store');
});

Form snippet

@if (count($errors) > 0)
<ul>
        @foreach ($errors->all() as $error)
            <li>{{ $error }}</li>
        @endforeach
</ul>
@endif

<form action="{{ url('contact') }}" method="POST" class="form-horizontal">
  <input type="text" name="name" id="contact-name" class="form-control">
  <button type="submit">submit</button>
</form>

Controller snippet

public function index(Request $request)
    {
        var_dump($request->session()->all());
        return view('contact.index');
    }

    /**
     * Create a new task.
     *
     * @param  Request $request
     * @return Response
     */
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        var_dump($request->session()->all());
        $this->validate($request, [
          /* characters will fail the validation */
          'name' => 'required|integer|min:4',
        ]);

        dd($request->all());
    }

correct input gives me the dd() from the store method, so validation is working at a certain level. The problem must be in the redirect and session.