rest - How do I create a RESTful API in Laravel to use in my BackboneJS app

Question

I want to create a RESTful API in Laravel 4 to use in my BackboneJS apps. What is the best way for doing this? Does the Laravel 4 framework provides a good solution for this.

Answer 1

This is an example for creating an API that stores bookmarks. It uses the Route::resource() method.

Creating a RESTful controller in Laravel 4

POST = store() (Create a new entry)
DELETE = destroy($id) (Delete an entry)
GET = index() (Get all entries)
GET = show($id) (Get one entry)
PUT = update($id) (Update an entry)

The best extension for testing your API's: Chrome extension Postman REST client

This is my simple router and controller, I did the same kind of project. You might want to try Postman RESTful client for Chrome to test your API,

routes.php

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Application Routes
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here is where you can register all of the routes for an application.
| It's a breeze. Simply tell Laravel the URIs it should respond to
| and give it the Closure to execute when that URI is requested.
|
*/

// Route group for API versioning
Route::group(array('prefix' => 'api/v1'), function() {
    Route::resource('bookmarks', 'BookmarkController',
        array('except' => array('create', 'edit')));
});

BookmarkController.php

class BookmarkController extends Controller {

     /**
        * Display a listing of the resource.
        *
        * @return Response
        */
     public function index() {
            return Bookmark::all();
     }


     /**
        * Store a newly created resource in storage.
        *
        * @return Response
        */
     public function store() {
            $bookmark = new Bookmark;
            $bookmark->url = Input::get('url');
            $bookmark->description = Input::get('description');
            $bookmark->tags = Input::get('tags');
            $bookmark->save();
            return $bookmark;
     }


     /**
        * Display the specified resource.
        *
        * @param  int  $id
        * @return Response
        */
     public function show($id) {
            return Bookmark::find($id);
     }


     /**
        * Update the specified resource in storage.
        *
        * @param  int  $id
        * @return Response
        */
     public function update($id) {
            $bookmark = Bookmark::find($id);
            $bookmark->url = Input::get('url');
            $bookmark->description = Input::get('description');
            $bookmark->tags = Input::get('tags');
            $bookmark->save();
     }


     /**
        * Remove the specified resource from storage.
        *
        * @param  int  $id
        * @return Response
        */
     public function destroy($id) {
            $bookmark = Bookmark::find($id)->delete();
     }

}