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How to create RESTful API in Laravel 5.7

Last updated on November 9, 2019

In this tutorial, I will show you creating RESTful apis using Laravel 5.7 php framework. We gonna use the Laravel’s API resources to build RESTful APIs.
Laravel’s API Resource class is a way to transform data from one format to another.
For example, if you have a comment model and you want to manipulate the data or remove certain fields from the model before sending that in our response,
it is difficult without using some sort of data transform layers like API resources or Fractal.

As first step, lets create a Laravel application as shown below:

Creating the Laravel app

Create the Laravel app called “todo” with the below command

 $ composer create-project laravel/laravel todo --prefer-dist
(OR)
$ composer create-project laravel/laravel todo 5.7 --prefer-dist

On successful installation, you will get similar output on your console –

$ composer create-project laravel/laravel todo --prefer-dist
Installing laravel/laravel (v5.7.0)
  - Installing laravel/laravel (v5.7.0): Downloading (100%)         
Created project in todo
> @php -r "file_exists('.env') || copy('.env.example', '.env');"
Loading composer repositories with package information
Updating dependencies (including require-dev)
Package operations: 71 installs, 0 updates, 0 removals
  - Installing vlucas/phpdotenv (v2.5.1): Downloading (100%)         
  - Installing symfony/css-selector (v4.1.4): Downloading (100%)         
  - Installing tijsverkoyen/css-to-inline-styles (2.2.1): Downloading (100%)      
  - Installing symfony/polyfill-php72 (v1.9.0): Downloading (100%)         
  - Installing symfony/polyfill-mbstring (v1.9.0): Downloading (100%)         
  - Installing symfony/var-dumper (v4.1.4): Downloading (100%)         
  - Installing symfony/routing (v4.1.4): Downloading (100%)         
....
........
Writing lock file
Generating autoload files
> Illuminate\Foundation\ComposerScripts::postAutoloadDump
> @php artisan package:discover
Discovered Package: fideloper/proxy
Discovered Package: laravel/tinker
Package manifest generated successfully.
> @php artisan key:generate
Application key [base64:SFxdFLndUlDXL04+RcKW6zk0G/oCdA20Efej93fax1g=] set successfully.

Above command will create a todo directory and all project related files and directories will be downloaded into “todo” folder. Now change the directory to todo from the terminal and issue artisan command to serve the application.

$ cd todo
$ php artisan serve

Configure Your Database

Create a database and edit .env and fill it with your database settings. This article assumes a MySQL database.

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=your_database_name
DB_USERNAME=your_username
DB_PASSWORD=your_password

Create Migration File

Below command set up the basic migration scripts that we’ll be using to create the database table.

 php artisan make:migration create_tasks_table --create=tasks

Now required migration file is in place, so let’s add a table column as shown below.

Edit app/database/migrations/SOME_DATE_create_tasks_table.php and edit and update the up() and down() methods:

public function up() {
   Schema::create('tasks', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->increments('id');
            $table->string('name');
            $table->text('description');
            $table->integer('user_id');
            $table->timestamps();
   });
}
public function down() {
    Schema::dropIfExists('tasks');
}

Add Sample Users and todos

We gonna use Laravel’s seeds to create a few sample users and todos.

Let issue following commands to create seeder class from your root of the project.

php artisan make:seeder UsersTableSeeder 
php artisan make:seeder TasksTableSeeder

Generated seeders by the above commands will be placed in the database/seeders directory. In our case, we have two seed files called UsersTableSeeder.php and TasksTableSeeder.php.

Update seeder run methods as shown below
UsersTableSeeder.php

    public function run()
    {
        factory(App\User::class, 50)->create();
    }

TasksTableSeeder.php

    public function run()
    {
        factory(App\Task::class, 50)->create();
    }

Next, make sure that seeder class gets run when the database is seeded. Edit app/database/seeds/DatabaseSeeder.php

    public function run()
    {
         $this->call(UsersTableSeeder::class);
         $this->call(TasksTableSeeder::class);
    }

Add Model Factories

Next, create app/database/factories/UserFactory.php and app/database/factories/TaskFactory.php and place below code blocks

define(App\User::class, function (Faker $faker) {
    static $password;
    return [
        'name' => $faker->name,
        'email' => $faker->unique()->safeEmail,
        'password' => $password ?: $password = bcrypt('secret'),
        'remember_token' => str_random(10),
    ];
});
define(App\Task::class, function (Faker $faker) {
    $users = App\User::pluck('id')->toArray();
    return [
        'name' => $faker->unique()->name,
        'description' => $faker->text,
        'user_id' => $faker->randomElement($users)
    ];
});

Create Task Model

Laravel comes with a User model setup, so let’s create a model for our tasks table.

Create a modal with

$ php artisan make:model Task

since you are following Laravel naming conventions you don’t have to change anything in the task model.

Run the Migrations

Below are the Laravel’s artisan commands and issue below commands from your project root. These commands will create those tables and inset sample users and tasks to the database.

// Create the tables for migrations
$ php artisan migrate
 
// Create the sample users and tasks
$ php artisan db:seed

You might get following error –

[Illuminate\Database\QueryException]
SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1071 Specified key was too long; max key length is 767 bytes (SQL: alter table `users` add unique `users_email_unique`(`email`))
[PDOException]
SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1071 Specified key was too long; max key length is 767 bytes

To fix this all you have to do is edit your AppServiceProvider.php file and inside the boot method set a default string length:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

public function boot()
{
    Schema::defaultStringLength(191);
}

We gonna build following endpoints –

 URL                          HTTP Method  Operation
/api/task                     GET          Returns an array of tasks
/api/task/:id                 GET          Returns the task with id of :id
/api/task                     POST         Adds a new task and return it.
/api/task/:id                 PUT          Updates the task with id of :id
/api/task/:id                 DELETE       Deletes the task with id of :id

Create Task Controller

$ php artisan make:controller TaskController

Now define your api routes in routes/api.php

// get list of tasks
Route::get('tasks','TaskController@index');
// get specific task
Route::get('task/{id}','TaskController@show');
// create new task
Route::post('task','TaskController@store');
// update existing task
Route::put('task','TaskController@store');
// delete a task
Route::delete('task/{id}','TaskController@destroy');

Create a Task recource

Now let’s create a resource for Task, which will transform the eloquent model into the proper dataset, which we can return to the end user.

$ php artisan make:resource Task

Above command will generate a file called Task.php inside app/Http/Resouces


Now update Task.php toArray method with below code -

 public function toArray($request)
    {
        return [
            'id' => $this->id,
            'task' => $this->name,
            'task_description' => $this->description
        ];
    }

Now let use above generated Task resources inside Task controller -

delete()) {
            return new TaskResource($task);
        } 

    }

    public function store(Request $request)  {

        $task = $request->isMethod('put') ? Task::findOrFail($request->task_id) : new Task;
            
        $task->id = $request->input('task_id');
        $task->name = $request->input('name');
        $task->description = $request->input('description');
        $task->user_id =  1; //$request->user()->id;

        if($task->save()) {
            return new TaskResource($task);
        } 
        
    }
}

How to access

You can use CURL or any rest client like postman or advanced rest client

Using curl, you could do something like this -

    $ curl -H 'content-type: application/json' -v -X GET http://localhost:8000/api/tasks 
    $ curl -H 'content-type: application/json' -v -X GET http://localhost:8000/api/task/:id
    $ curl -H 'content-type: application/json' -v -X POST -d '{"name":"Test api","description":"I am 
 gonna test apis","user_id":1}' http://localhost:8000/api/task
    $ curl -H 'content-type: application/json' -v -X PUT -d '{"name":"Test All APIs","description":"I am 
 gonna test apis","user_id":1}}' http://localhost:8000/api/task/:id
    $ curl -H 'content-type: application/json' -v -X DELETE http://localhost:8000/api/task/:id
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