How to create API in Laravel Step By Step

In this article I’ll show you how to create API in Laravel in a detailed step by step process.

In Laravel API is mostly used when you work with the mobile applications. API creation is very easy with Laravel because Laravel provide a very easy way to create Rest APIs.

So let’s start the understanding API building in Laravel Step by Step

Steps on how to create API in Laravel

#Step1. Install Laravel

To create API in Laravel we will start from installing Laravel with the help of following command

composer create-project laravel/laravel:^8.0 Laravel

#Step2. Configure the database

In this step on how to create API in Laravel we will create configure the database in our Laravel project. For that we will add the following lines in the .env file which is present in the root folder

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=here your database name
DB_USERNAME=here database username
DB_PASSWORD=here database password

Note: Most of the values are given by before in .env file you just have to update these values

#Step3. Create a table in database

The next step on how to create API in Laravel is to create a table. For that, use below comand

In this step to create our API we will create a table by the following command

php artisan make:migration create_blogs_table 

Now open migration file of your project and update the following code

<?php
 
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
 
class CreateBlogsTable extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('blogs', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('title', 255)->nullable();
            $table->text('body')->nullable();
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }
 
    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('blogs');
    }
}

Now to create table you have to run the migration file by the following command

php artisan migrate

This will create a table in your database by the name of create_blogs_table.

#Step4. Adding Resource Route

In this step on how to create API in Laravel we need to add a resource route for CRUD operations

Now, open routes/api.php file and add the following route

use App\Http\Controllers\BlogController;
Route::resource('blogs', BlogController::class);

#Step5. Adding Model and Controller

In this step on how to create API in Laravel, we will now add model and controller by the help of following command

php artisan make:controller BlogController --resource –model=Blog

After you enter the command given above, you will find a new file in the below path

app/Http/Controllers/BlogController.php

Now, in this controller we will create 7 methods by default as shown below:

• index()
• create()
• store()
• show()
• edit()
• update()
• destroy()

Now go to the project path: app/Http/Controllers/BlogController.php

And update the code as follows

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\Blog;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class BlogController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Display a listing of the resource.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function index()
    {
        $blogs = Blog::latest()->paginate(10);
        return [
            "status" => 1,
            "data" => $blogs
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Show the form for creating a new resource.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function create()
    {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Store a newly created resource in storage.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $request->validate([
            'title' => 'required',
            'body' => 'required',
        ]);

        $blog = Blog::create($request->all());
        return [
            "status" => 1,
            "data" => $blog
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Display the specified resource.
     *
     * @param  \App\Models\Blog  $blog
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function show(Blog $blog)
    {
        return [
            "status" => 1,
            "data" =>$blog
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Show the form for editing the specified resource.
     *
     * @param  \App\Models\Blog  $blog
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function edit(Blog $blog)
    {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Update the specified resource in storage.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @param  \App\Models\Blog  $blog
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function update(Request $request, Blog $blog)
    {
        $request->validate([
            'title' => 'required',
            'body' => 'required',
        ]);

        $blog->update($request->all());

        return [
            "status" => 1,
            "data" => $blog,
            "msg" => "Blog updated successfully"
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Remove the specified resource from storage.
     *
     * @param  \App\Models\Blog  $blog
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function destroy(Blog $blog)
    {
        $blog->delete();
        return [
            "status" => 1,
            "data" => $blog,
            "msg" => "Blog deleted successfully"
        ];
    }
}

#Step6. Run CRUD project

In this final step of how to create API in Laravel tutorial, now we will run the CRUD application using the command below

php artisan serve

#Step7. Testing

We have successfully created Laravel API. Now we can open the below URL on Postman:

1. Create new Blog Article

url: http://127.0.0.1:8000/blogs

method: POST

data: { title: “Title”, body: “Body here..” }

2. Update any Blog Article

url: http://127.0.0.1:8000/blogs/{id}

method: PUT/PATCH

data: { title: “Update Title”, body: “Update Body here..” }

3. Get All of the Blogs

url: http://127.0.0.1:8000/blogs/

method: GET

4. Get any Single Blog

url: http://127.0.0.1:8000/blogs/{id}

method: GET

5. Delete any Blog

url: http://127.0.0.1:8000/blogs/{id}

method: DELETE

Conclusion

Using the steps outlined above, you can Create API in Laravel. If you have any questions about this Laravel 8 API tutorial, please leave them in the comments section. Alternatively, you can hire a Laravel Developer to assist you in creating a Laravel API.

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