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Inside this article we will learn one more important concept of laravel i.e Laravel 9 REST API Development Using Sanctum. This will be step by step guide to create restful services from scratch.

REpresentational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style that defines a set of constraints to be used for creating web services. REST API is a way of accessing web services in a simple and flexible way without having any processing.

In this article we will create a secure set of rest apis using laravel using Sanctum. Sanctum is a laravel composer package.

What we will do in this article –

User Register API
Login API
Create Post
List Post
Single Post details
Update Post
Delete Post

Above are the apis, we will create using sanctum authentication.

Learn More –

Let’s get started.

Laravel Installation

Open terminal and run this command to create a laravel project.

composer create-project laravel/laravel myblog

It will create a project folder with name myblog inside your local system.

To start the development server of laravel –

php artisan serve

URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000

Assuming laravel already installed inside your system.

Create Database & Connect

To create a database, either we can create via Manual tool of PhpMyadmin or by means of a mysql command.

CREATE DATABASE laravel_app;

To connect database with application, Open .env file from application root. Search for DB_ and update your details.

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_app
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=root

Install And Configure Laravel Sanctum

Laravel Sanctum package provides a full 0Auth2 server implementation for Laravel applications. By using it, we can easily generate a personal access token to uniquely identify a currently authenticated user. This token will then be attached to every request allowing each user access to protected routes.

Open project into terminal and run this command.

$ composer require laravel/sanctum

Next, we need to migrate migration files.

$ php artisan migrate

Publish Provider

Back to project terminal and run this command.

$ php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Sanctum\SanctumServiceProvider"

Update User Model

When we install laravel setup, by default we get a model User.php inside /app/Models folder.

use Laravel\Sanctum\HasApiTokens; // Add this line

...

use HasApiTokens;

Open User.php and update by this code.

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\MustVerifyEmail;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
use Laravel\Sanctum\HasApiTokens;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use HasApiTokens, HasFactory, Notifiable;

    /**
     * The attributes that are mass assignable.
     *
     * @var array<int, string>
     */
    protected $fillable = [
        'name',
        'email',
        'password',
    ];

    /**
     * The attributes that should be hidden for serialization.
     *
     * @var array<int, string>
     */
    protected $hidden = [
        'password',
        'remember_token',
    ];

    /**
     * The attributes that should be cast.
     *
     * @var array<string, string>
     */
    protected $casts = [
        'email_verified_at' => 'datetime',
    ];
}

Create Model & Migration For Post

Open project into terminal and run this artisan command.

$ php artisan make:model Post -m

-m to create migration file as well.

Above command will generate two files. One is Model and second is migration file.

Model – Post.php inside /app/Models folder

Migration – 2022_03_20_040948_create_posts_table.php inside /database/migrations

Open Post.php and write this code into it.

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Post extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;

    protected $fillable = [
        'title', 'body'
    ];
}

Open Migration file 2022_03_20_040948_create_posts_table.php and write this code.

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

return new class extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('title');
            $table->text('body');
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('posts');
    }
};

Run Migration

Back to terminal and run this command to migrate.

$ php artisan migrate

Create Controllers

Back to terminal and run these artisan commands to create.

Parent Api Controller

$ php artisan make:controller API/BaseController

This command will create a file BaseController.php inside /app/Http/Controllers/API folder. API is the folder which will be created to store API controller files.

BaseController will be our parent controller for api controllers for this article.

Open BaseController.php and write this code into it.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers\API;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller as Controller;

class BaseController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * success response method.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function sendResponse($result, $message)
    {
        $response = [
            'success' => true,
            'data'    => $result,
            'message' => $message,
        ];

        return response()->json($response, 200);
    }

    /**
     * return error response.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function sendError($error, $errorMessages = [], $code = 404)
    {
        $response = [
            'success' => false,
            'message' => $error,
        ];

        if (!empty($errorMessages)) {
            $response['data'] = $errorMessages;
        }

        return response()->json($response, $code);
    }
}

Register Controller

$ php artisan make:controller API/RegisterController --api --model=User

This command will create a RegisterController.php file inside /app/Http/Controllers/API folder.

Open RegisterController.php and write this code.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers\API;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Controllers\API\BaseController as BaseController;
use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use Validator;

class RegisterController extends BaseController
{
    /**
     * Register api
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function register(Request $request)
    {
        $validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [
            'name' => 'required',
            'email' => 'required|email',
            'password' => 'required',
        ]);

        if ($validator->fails()) {
            return $this->sendError('Validation Error.', $validator->errors());
        }

        $input = $request->all();
        $input['password'] = bcrypt($input['password']);
        $user = User::create($input);
        $success['token'] =  $user->createToken('MyApp')->plainTextToken;
        $success['name'] =  $user->name;

        return $this->sendResponse($success, 'User register successfully.');
    }

    /**
     * Login api
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function login(Request $request)
    {
        if (Auth::attempt(['email' => $request->email, 'password' => $request->password])) {
            $user = Auth::user();
            $success['token'] =  $user->createToken('MyApp')->plainTextToken;
            $success['name'] =  $user->name;

            return $this->sendResponse($success, 'User login successfully.');
        } else {
            return $this->sendError('Unauthorised.', ['error' => 'Unauthorised']);
        }
    }
}

Post Controller

$ php artisan make:controller API/PostController --api --model=Post

This command will create a PostController.php file inside /app/Http/Controllers/API folder.

Open PostController.php and write this code.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers\API;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Controllers\API\BaseController as BaseController;
use App\Http\Resources\PostResource;
use App\Models\Post;
use Validator;

class PostController extends BaseController
{
    /**
     * Display a listing of the resource.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function index()
    {
        $posts = Post::all();

        return $this->sendResponse(PostResource::collection($posts), 'Post retrieved successfully.');
    }

    /**
     * Store a newly created resource in storage.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $input = $request->all();

        $validator = Validator::make($input, [
            'title' => 'required',
            'body' => 'required'
        ]);

        if ($validator->fails()) {
            return $this->sendError('Validation Error.', $validator->errors());
        }

        $post = Post::create($input);

        return $this->sendResponse(new PostResource($post), 'Post created successfully.');
    }

    /**
     * Display the specified resource.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function show($id)
    {
        $post = Post::find($id);

        if (is_null($post)) {
            return $this->sendError('Post not found.');
        }

        return $this->sendResponse(new PostResource($post), 'Post retrieved successfully.');
    }

    /**
     * Update the specified resource in storage.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function update(Request $request, Post $post)
    {
        $input = $request->all();

        $validator = Validator::make($input, [
            'title' => 'required',
            'body' => 'required'
        ]);

        if ($validator->fails()) {
            return $this->sendError('Validation Error.', $validator->errors());
        }

        $post->title = $input['title'];
        $post->body = $input['body'];
        $post->save();

        return $this->sendResponse(new PostResource($post), 'Post updated successfully.');
    }

    /**
     * Remove the specified resource from storage.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function destroy(Post $post)
    {
        $post->delete();

        return $this->sendResponse([], 'Post deleted successfully.');
    }
}

Create Eloquent API Resource

Laravel Eloquent resources allow you to convert your models and collections into JSON format.

Open terminal and write this command

$ php artisan make:resource PostResource

It will create a file PostResource.php inside /app/Http/Resources folder.

Open PostResource.php and write this code.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Resources;

use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource;

class PostResource extends JsonResource
{
    /**
     * Transform the resource into an array.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
     * @return array
     */
    public function toArray($request)
    {
        return [
            'id' => $this->id,
            'title' => $this->title,
            'body' => $this->body,
            'created_at' => $this->created_at->format('d/m/Y'),
            'updated_at' => $this->updated_at->format('d/m/Y'),
        ];
    }
}

Add API Routes

Open api.php from /routes folder. Add these routes into it.

//...
use App\Http\Controllers\API\RegisterController;
use App\Http\Controllers\API\PostController;

//...
Route::controller(RegisterController::class)->group(function () {
    Route::post('register', 'register');
    Route::post('login', 'login');
});

Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->group(function () {
    Route::resource('posts', PostController::class);
});

Open terminal and run this artisan command to see all available routes.

Application Testing

Run this command into project terminal to start development server,

php artisan serve

Register API

URL – http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/register

Method – POST

Header –

Content-Type:application/json
Accept:application/json

Body –

{
   "name": "Sanjay Kumar",
   "email": "sanjay@gmail.com",
   "password": "123456"
}

Login API

URL – http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/login

Method – POST

Header –

Content-Type:application/json
Accept:application/json

Body –

{
   "email": "sanjay@gmail.com",
   "password": "123456"
}

Create Post API

URL – http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/posts

Method – POST

Header –

Content-Type:application/json
Authorization:Bearer <token>
Accept:application/json

Body –

{
	"title": "Post 1",
	"body": "First Sample Post"
}

List Post API

URL – http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/posts

Method – GET

Header –

Authorization:Bearer <token>
Accept:application/json

Single Post Detail API

URL – http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/posts/1

Method – GET

Header –

Authorization:Bearer <token>
Accept:application/json

Update Post API

URL – http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/posts/1

Method – PATCH

Header –

Content-Type:application/json
Authorization:Bearer <token>
Accept:application/json

Body –

{
	"title": "Post 1 update",
	"body": "Sample post updated"
}

Delete Post API

URL – http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/posts/1

Method – DELETE

Header –

Authorization:Bearer <token>
Accept:application/json

We hope this article helped you to learn about Laravel 9 REST API Development Using Sanctum Tutorial in a very detailed way.

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