Returning an Eloquent model as JSON in Laravel 4

Question

How do you return an Eloquent model to the browser as JSON? What is the difference between the two methods below? Both seems to work.

#1:

Answer 1

this solved my problem in laravel 5.5:

function allUsers()
{
    $users = \App\User::all();
    $usersJson = json_encode($users);
    return $usersJson;
}