Creating Restful APIs with laravel

We will create simple application that solve all your queries regarding Restful APIs in Laravel 5.7.19 and mySql

Getting Started

I assume that you have basic knowledge of PHP and laravel. We will create a sample Restful APIs with Authors and their blogs relations, so you will understand easily .

Prerequisites

PHP 7.1.3 Laravel 5.7.* Mysql DB

I am assuming that you already setup your server and php/mysql, so we can jump directly learning stuff which is the main purpose of this tutorial.

Installing Laravel

First of navigate to your working directory and install Laravel by composer

Syntax

composer create-project laravel/laravel {projectName} "5.7.*" --prefer-dist

Or

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel:5.7.* {projectName}

Example:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel laraapi

Let's start playing with code now !!

Adding Resource Controller and Models

First of all we will create Models and Controllers by using artisan CLI

php artisan make:model Model/Author –a

-a option denotes --all | It will Generate a migration, factory, and resource controller for the model, all at once ;)

Similarly, now we will create Blog Model by using -a option

php artisan make:model Model/Blog –a

So, Model, Factory, Migration and Controller created at once. Thanks to artisan :)

Moving Controllers to API directory

As we are creating APIs here, so i recommend to move resource Controllers created for API purpose under API directory, so new path of our Controller will be:

As we moved our Controllers, so we need to regenerate namespaces for autoload, so need to run below command,

composer dump-autoload

it will associate our controller paths correctly in below files:

vendor\composer\autoload_classmap.php

&

vendor\composer\autoload_static.php

One more thing, as we moved our controllers inside some other directory i.e API, so we also need to use Controller namespace now inside our Controllers, so please update namespace and add below lines in AuthorController.php and BlogController.php respectively:

namespace  App\Http\Controllers\API
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

Thats it, now your copy is up to date!

Setting up ROUTES

Navigate to api.php under routes

'routes\api.php'

First, we will add new route as given below:

Route::Resource('/authors','API\AuthorController');

and run below command in terminal:

php artisan route:list

It will show all routes as :

Method	URI	Name	Action	Middleware
GET	HEAD	/		Closure
GET	HEAD	api/authors	authors.index	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@index
POST	api/authors	authors.store	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@store	api
GET	HEAD	api/authors/create	authors.create	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@create
GET	HEAD	api/authors/{author}	authors.show	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@show
PUT	PATCH	api/authors/{author}	authors.update	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@update
DELETE	api/authors/{author}	authors.destroy	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@destroy	api
GET	HEAD	api/authors/{author}/edit	authors.edit	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@edit

Now, we will add api with Resource like:

Route::apiResource('/authors','API\AuthorController');

now again check routes list by using artisan, you will see difference

php artisan route:list

It will remove create and edit from route list, see below:

Method	URI	Name	Action	Middleware
GET	HEAD	/		Closure
GET	HEAD	api/authors	authors.index	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@index
POST	api/authors	authors.store	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@store	api
GET	HEAD	api/authors/{author}	authors.show	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@show
PUT	PATCH	api/authors/{author}	authors.update	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@update
DELETE	api/authors/{author}	authors.destroy	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@destroy	api

This is how apiResource, is helping us by removing unwanted routes, as when using APIs we don't require any page for creating and for editing purpose.

Similarly, let's create Blog Route also quickly:

Here, as we have to access all blogs associated with particular author like:

// author/{id}/blogs

so, let's create prefix for authors/

Route::prefix('/authors')->group(function () {
	Route::apiResource('{author}/blogs','API\BlogController');
});

Now, check route:list once again, to see if everything is working fine.

Method	URI	Name	Action	Middleware
GET	HEAD	/		Closure
GET	HEAD	api/authors	authors.index	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@index
POST	api/authors	authors.store	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@store	api
GET	HEAD	api/authors/{author}	authors.show	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@show
PUT	PATCH	api/authors/{author}	authors.update	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@update
DELETE	api/authors/{author}	authors.destroy	App\Http\Controllers\API\AuthorController@destroy	api
GET	HEAD	api/authors/{author}/blogs	blogs.index	App\Http\Controllers\API\BlogController@index
POST	api/authors/{author}/blogs	blogs.store	App\Http\Controllers\API\BlogController@store	api
GET	HEAD	api/authors/{author}/blogs/{blog}	blogs.show	App\Http\Controllers\API\BlogController@show
PUT	PATCH	api/authors/{author}/blogs/{blog}	blogs.update	App\Http\Controllers\API\BlogController@update
DELETE	api/authors/{author}/blogs/{blog}	blogs.destroy	App\Http\Controllers\API\BlogController@destroy	api