Why Use Laravel for REST APIs?
Laravel is a powerful PHP framework that simplifies building robust REST APIs. This guide walks you through creating a simple API for a blog application.
Step 1: Set Up Laravel
Install Laravel using Composer:
composer create-project laravel/laravel blog-api
Step 2: Create a Model and Migration
Generate a Post model with a migration:
php artisan make:model Post -m
Define the schema in the migration file and run:
php artisan migrate
Step 3: Create API Routes
In routes/api.php, define routes for CRUD operations:
Route::apiResource('posts', PostController::class);
Step 4: Build the Controller
Generate a resource controller:
php artisan make:controller PostController --api
Implement methods for index, store, show, update, and destroy.
Conclusion
Laravel’s elegant syntax and built-in tools like Eloquent make it ideal for API development. Test your API with tools like Postman.