SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1048 Column ’employee_signature’ cannot be null

I am facing an issue with submitting signature data to the database in my Laravel application. The peculiar thing is that this problem only occurs when I have authentication enabled. When I remove the authentication middleware from the routes, everything works as expected.

Here is the relevant Blade code for the signature inputs:

<div class="row">
    <!-- Employee Signature -->
    <div class="col-md-6">
        <div class="form-group">
            <label for="employee_signature">Employee Signature</label>
            <div class="card">
                <div class="card-body">
                    <canvas id="employee_signature" style="width: 100%; height: 200px;"></canvas>
                </div>
            </div>
            <button type="button" id="clear_employee_signature" class="btn btn-secondary mt-2">Clear</button>
            <input type="hidden" id="employee_signature_data" name="employee_signature">
        </div>
    </div>
    <!-- Customer Signature -->
    <div class="col-md-6">
        <div class="form-group">
            <label for="customer_signature">Customer Signature</label>
            <div class="card">
                <div class="card-body">
                    <canvas id="customer_signature" style="width: 100%; height: 200px;"></canvas>
                </div>
            </div>
            <button type="button" id="clear_customer_signature" class="btn btn-secondary mt-2">Clear</button>
            <input type="hidden" id="customer_signature_data" name="customer_signature">
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
    <label for="image_draw">Damage</label>
    <div class="card">
        <div class="card-body">
            <canvas id="image_draw" style="width: 100%; height: 470px;"></canvas>
        </div>
    </div>
    <button type="button" id="clear_image_draw" class="btn btn-secondary mt-2">Clear</button>
    <input type="hidden" id="image_draw_data" name="image_draw">
</div>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.5.1.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.12.1/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.12.1/themes/base/jquery-ui.css">
<script>
window.onload = function () {
    var employeeSignatureCanvas = document.getElementById('employee_signature');
    var customerSignatureCanvas = document.getElementById('customer_signature');
    var imageDrawCanvas = document.getElementById('image_draw'); 

    [employeeSignatureCanvas, customerSignatureCanvas, imageDrawCanvas].forEach(canvas => {
        canvas.width = canvas.offsetWidth;
        canvas.height = canvas.offsetHeight;
    });

    var employeeSignaturePad = new SignaturePad(employeeSignatureCanvas, {penColor: 'red', minWidth: 1, maxWidth: 1});
    var customerSignaturePad = new SignaturePad(customerSignatureCanvas, {penColor: 'red', minWidth: 1, maxWidth: 1});
    var imageDrawPad = new SignaturePad(imageDrawCanvas, {penColor: 'red', minWidth: 10, maxWidth: 10});

    document.getElementById('clear_employee_signature').addEventListener('click', function () {
        employeeSignaturePad.clear();
    });
    document.getElementById('clear_customer_signature').addEventListener('click', function () {
        customerSignaturePad.clear();
    });
    document.getElementById('clear_image_draw').addEventListener('click', function () {
        imageDrawPad.clear();
        imageDrawCanvas.getContext('2d').drawImage(image, 0, 0, imageDrawCanvas.width, imageDrawCanvas.height);
    });

    document.querySelector('form').addEventListener('submit', function (e) {
        var employeeSignatureData = employeeSignaturePad.toDataURL();
        var customerSignatureData = customerSignaturePad.toDataURL();
        var imageDrawData = imageDrawPad.toDataURL(); 

        document.getElementById('employee_signature_data').value = employeeSignatureData;
        document.getElementById('customer_signature_data').value = customerSignatureData;
        document.getElementById('image_draw_data').value = imageDrawData;

        if (employeeSignaturePad.isEmpty() || customerSignaturePad.isEmpty() || imageDrawPad.isEmpty()) {
            e.preventDefault();
            alert('Please provide both signatures and draw on the image.');
        }
    });
};

$(function() {
    var employees = @json(array_map(function($employee) { return $employee['name']; }, $employees));
</script>

web.php

use IlluminateSupportFacadesRoute;
use AppHttpControllersTicketController;
use AppHttpControllersAuthLoginController;

// Login routes
Route::get('/login', [LoginController::class, 'showLoginForm'])->name('login');
Route::post('/login', [LoginController::class, 'login']);
Route::post('/logout', [LoginController::class, 'logout'])->name('logout');

// Authenticated routes
Route::middleware(['auth'])->group(function () {
    // Ticket routes
    Route::get('/', [TicketController::class, 'index']);
    Route::get('/add-ticket', [TicketController::class, 'create']);
    Route::post('/add-ticket', [TicketController::class, 'store']); 

    // Ticket specific routes
    Route::prefix('ticket')->group(function () {
        Route::get('/{id}', [TicketController::class, 'show']);
        Route::get('/{id}/pdf', [TicketController::class, 'generatePDF']);
        Route::put('/{id}', [TicketController::class, 'updateStatus']);
        Route::put('/{id}/report', [TicketController::class, 'updateReport']);
    });

    // Home route
    Route::get('/home', [TicketController::class, 'index'])->name('home');
});

TicketController

    public function store(Request $request)
{
    // Log the request data
    Log::info('Request data:', $request->all());

    $ticket = new Ticket;
    $ticket->full_name = $request->full_name;
    $ticket->cpr = $request->cpr;
    $ticket->password = $request->password;
    $ticket->mobile_no = $request->mobile_no;
    $ticket->invoice_no = $request->invoice_no;
    $ticket->products_with_issue = $request->products_with_issue;
    $ticket->issue_description = $request->issue_description;
    $ticket->received_by = $request->received_by;
    $ticket->assigned_to = $request->assigned_to;
    $ticket->employee_signature = $request->employee_signature;
    $ticket->customer_signature = $request->customer_signature;
    $ticket->image_draw = $request->image_draw;
    $ticket->save();

    return redirect('/add-ticket')->with('status', 'Ticket added successfully!');
}