We are going to create a simple REST API using Laravel 5. The application will be able to create, read, update and delete (CRUD) businesses from the database. We will store the name, location and description for businesses within a SQLite database.
Laravel is an awesome web framework for PHP that makes it really easy to build powerful web applications.
Prereq: Install Laravel - framework we'll be using Install Yarn - Node.js package manager, similar to npm
First create a brand spanking new Laravel 5.4 project:
$ laravel new laravel-5-rest-api
$ cd laravel-5-rest-api
$ composer install
$ touch .env
$ php artisan key:generate
Copy over the contents of .env.example into the newly created .env file. From there, we're going to generate a key and set it for our application. This is a common hurtle documented on github here and here. The fix is easy though! Copy the output contents of the key:generate command and paste that value into the .env file like so:
APP_KEY=base64:keygoesherenotpostingmyrealkey
Then run:
$ php artisan config:clear
$ php artisan config:cache
$ php artisan serve
The application will be accessible to your local development environment. Open a web browser to http://localhost:8000/.
Generate the model and resource controller.
$ php artisan make:model Business -mr
Model created successfully.
Created Migration: 2017_06_11_034845_create_businesses_table
Controller created successfully.
This command creates a database migration in database/migrations/TIMESTAMP_GOES_HERE_create_businesses_table.php and a resource controller in app/Http/Controllers/BusinessController.php.
In the migration file we define how the Businesses database table will look. Add the definition for the name, lat, long and description columns.
...
class CreateBusinessesTable extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::create('businesses', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('name');
$table->string('description');
$table->float('latitude', 10, 6);
$table->float('longitude', 10, 6);
$table->timestamps();
});
}
...
Laravel 5 supports MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, and SQL Server. To use MySQL and Sequel Pro check out this post. For SQLite follow the steps below. Either should work with minimal configuration headache.
Add a sqlite database file in the project root. Next, add the absolute file path to that file in our project's .env file. To output the file path location we can use the php artisan tinker command.
$ touch database/database.sqlite
$ php artisan tinker
Psy Shell v0.8.0 (PHP 5.6.27 — cli) by Justin Hileman
>>> database_path(‘database.sqlite’)
=> "/Users/connorleech/Projects/laravel-5-rest-api/database/database.sqlite"
The database section of my environment file looks like:
DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=/Users/connorleech/Projects/laravel-5.3-app/database/database.sqlite
DB_USERNAME=homestead
DB_PASSWORD=secret
Then create the database and set everything up:
$ php artisan migrate:install
$ php artisan migrate
This wil create the businesses table and database connection.
Head into database/factories/ModelFactory.php and paste in code to generate mock records for our database when our application starts up. This will use the Faker PHP package for randomly generating the business names, catchphrase descriptions and locations.
...
$factory->define(App\Business::class, function(Faker\Generator $faker){
return [
'name' => $faker->company,
'description' => $faker->catchPhrase,
'latitude' => $faker->latitude,
'longitude' => $faker->longitude
];
});
Fire up the shell and run:
$ php artisan tinker
Psy Shell v0.8.6 (PHP 5.6.27 — cli) by Justin Hileman
>>> factory('App\Business', 30)->create();
Add one line in routes/web.php:
Route::resource('/businesses', 'BusinessController');
This will generate the below routes for Creating, Reading, Updating and Deleting businesses.
Create a directory
Update the package.json file to call the cross-env package when running commands. This is documented in laravel-mix issue #478.
...
"scripts": {
"dev": "npm run development",
"development": "node node_modules/cross-env/dist/bin/cross-env.js NODE_ENV=development node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --progress --hide-modules --config=node_modules/laravel-mix/setup/webpack.config.js",
"watch": "node node_modules/cross-env/dist/bin/cross-env.js NODE_ENV=development node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --watch --progress --hide-modules --config=node_modules/laravel-mix/setup/webpack.config.js",
"watch-poll": "npm run watch -- --watch-poll",
"hot": "node node_modules/cross-env/dist/bin/cross-env.js NODE_ENV=development node_modules/webpack-dev-server/bin/webpack-dev-server.js --inline --hot --config=node_modules/laravel-mix/setup/webpack.config.js",
"prod": "npm run production",
"production": "node node_modules/cross-env/dist/bin/cross-env.js NODE_ENV=production node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --progress --hide-modules --config=node_modules/laravel-mix/setup/webpack.config.js"
},
...
Head into webpack.mix.js and replace the mix.js() call with mix.react() call like so:
mix.react('resources/assets/js/app.jsx', 'public/js')
This is in the official Laravel documentation here.
Change the resources/assets/js/app.js file to be called resources/assets/js/app.jsx. Change the contents of the file to log the React.js library to the console:
require('./bootstrap');
window.React = require('react');
console.log(React);
From the terminal install the required packages and bundle our code with livereloading.
$ yarn add --dev react react-dom cross-env
$ yarn install
$ yarn run dev
<link href="{{ mix('css/app.css') }}" rel="stylesheet">
<script src="{{ mix('js/app.js') }}"></script>
Might have to add a .babelrc: laravel-mix/laravel-mix#333