Within a short span of time, RESTful APIs have become an integral part of website and web application development. While developing web services, most web developers nowadays opt for these application programming interfaces (APIs) developed based on REpresentational State Transfer (REST) architectural style. Unlike conventional architectural styles, RESTful API facilitates data exchange between web applications through an open and stateless protocol – HTTP. It further uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE data.

1. BUILDING RESTFUL APIS WITH LARAVEL

2.  Within a short span of time, RESTful APIs have become an
integral part of website and web application development.
 While developing web services, most web developers
nowadays opt for these application programming interfaces
(APIs) developed based on REpresentational State Transfer
(REST) architectural style.
 Unlike conventional architectural styles, RESTful API facilitates
data exchange between web applications through an open and
stateless protocol – HTTP. It further uses HTTP requests to GET,
PUT, POST, and DELETE data.

3.  The web developers can write RESTful APIs in a number of
programming languages including PHP and various PHP Frameworks.
 Here is a brief comparison of various PHP Frameworks. Though one of
the youngest ones, Laravel has emerged as a good framework for PHP
developers to work in the recent years. The PHP programmers can
build RESTful APIs using Laravel.
 Laravel simplifies development and testing of RESTful APIs by providing
a number of robust features – real-time communication, job queue,
and API authentication.
 But you, as a PHP programmer, must follow a sequence of steps in
building Restful APIs with Laravel quickly.

4. Important Steps in Building RESTful APIs with
Laravel
Know Appropriate Use of HTTP Verbs
As noted earlier, RESTful APIs leverage a number of request methods defined by
HTTP. You have to use the specific HTTP verbs to perform the desired action on
specific resources. Hence, you must understand the use of important HTTP verbs –
GET, POST, PUT and DELETE clearly. While developing a RESTful API with Laravel,
create resources through POST and retrieve resources through GET. At the same time,
you have to use PUT to update resources and DELETE to remove resources. It is
always important to use the HTTP verbs in the most appropriate way.

5. Set up Laravel Framework
If you are yet to install Laravel, it is advisable to install the web
framework through the robust PHP dependency manager – Composer.
After installing Laravel on a development server, you need to spend
some time to understand its folder structure. The features provided by
Laravel will enable you to create simple RESTful APIs without putting
extra time and effort.

6. Add Endpoints that Respond to Specific HTTP Verbs
You can use Closures to create end points for various resources by modifying the
app/routes.php file. You can even follow the same procedure to create additional
end points that respond to GET requests. Also, you can make the end points
respond to PUT requests simply by replacing Route::get with Route::post. Similarly,
you can create end points that respond to other HTTP methods simply by
specifying the exact Route. Laravel even allows you to create end points that do not
respond to any specific HTTP methods.

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