Getting 500 ERROR when doing an AJAX request in Laravel

I'm new to Laravel. I'm trying to make an AJAX request in my laravel app but I'm getting a 500 (Internal Server Error). So, here is my request in the .blade file:

    <script>
      $(document).ready(function () {
        $.ajaxSetup({
          headers: {
            'X-CSRF-TOKEN': $('meta[name="csrf-token"]').attr('content')
            }
        });
        $('#getRequest').on('click', function () {
            $.get('getMessages', function (data) {
               $('#target').append(data);
            });
       });
     });
   </script>

I added the .ajaxSetup to make sure tokens are not the reason for this problem. So I typed in this .blade file also the following tag:

<meta name="csrf-token" content="" />

Here is my route.php file:

Route::get('getMessages', 'PagesController@getMessages');

And here is my controller with the method in cause:

public function getMessages()
{
    return "OK";
}

The problem is tricky to me, because I know that I can create a anonimous function in my route.php file for this URI and it's gonna be the same thing. Or not. I don't know because if I actually do this

Route::get('getMessages', function ()
{
    return "OK";
});

instead of pointing to a method of a controller, it works! But I need it to work in a controller.

My controller is functioning properly when it comes to other methods and the name of the method is spelled correctly everywhere.

I'm working with XAMPP on Windows. I set XAMPP to work only with the current Laravel app, so when I type in "localhost" in my browser, it gets me to my app page and all of database data fetching work properly.

via Chebli Mohamed