Laravel Api Generator (No longer supported)

Two simple tools for building REST APIs with fractal: console generator and API skeleton

Introduction

This package provides two features

1. Console generator which creates Controller, Fractal Transformer and routes in a single command.

2. Basic REST API skeleton that can be really helpful if you need something standard. It's 100% optional.

If you do not use Fractal for your transformation layer, this package is probably not the right choice for you.

Installation

1. Run composer require arrilot/laravel-api-generator

2. Register a service provider in the app.php configuration file

<?php

'providers' => [
    ...
    'Arrilot\Api\ServiceProvider',
],
?>

3. Copy basic folder structure to app/Api cp -R vendor/arrilot/laravel-api-generator/templates/Api app/Api and check what you got there. If you need you can use different paths later.

Usage

Generator

The only console command that is added is artisan make:api <ModelName>.

Imagine you need to create a rest api to list/create/update etc users from users table. To achieve that you need to do lots of boilerplate operations - create controller, transformer, set up needed routes.

php artisan make:api User does all the work for you.

1. You may have noticed that after installation you already have a routes file app/Api/routes.php which looks like that:

<?php

Route::group(['prefix' => 'api/v1', 'namespace' => 'App\Api\Controllers'], function () {
    //
});

Feel free to change it if you like.

The generator adds Route::resource('users', 'UserController'); to the end of this file.

<?php

Route::group(['prefix' => 'api/v1', 'namespace' => 'App\Api\Controllers'], function () {
    //
    Route::resource('users', 'UserController');
});

As you can see it's smart enough to detect some route groups and treat this situation properly.

2. Then the generator creates a controller that extends base api controller.

<?php namespace App\Api\Controllers;

use App\User;
use App\Api\Transformers\UserTransformer;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Eloquent model.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model
     */
    protected function model()
    {
        return new User;
    }

    /**
     * Transformer for the current model.
     *
     * @return \League\Fractal\TransformerAbstract
     */
    protected function transformer()
    {
        return new UserTransformer;
    }
}

You can customize this stub as much as you want.

3. Finally the generator creates a fractal Transformer

<?php namespace App\Api\Transformers;

use App\User;
use League\Fractal\TransformerAbstract;

class UserTransformer extends TransformerAbstract
{
    /**
     * Resource key.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $resourceKey = null;
    
    /**
     * Turn this item object into a generic array.
     *
     * @param $item
     * @return array
     */
    public function transform(User $item)
    {
        return [
            'id'         => (int)$item->id,
            'created_at' => (string)$item->created_at,
            'updated_at' => (string)$item->updated_at,
        ];
    }
}

This stub is customizable too.

Skeleton

You may have noticed that controller which has just been generated includes two public methods - model() and transformer() That's because those methods are the only thing that you need in your controller to set up a basic REST API if you use the Skeleton.

The list of routes that are available out of the box:

1. GET api/v1/users
2. GET api/v1/users/{id}
3. POST api/v1/users
4. PUT api/v1/users/{id}
5. DELETE api/v1/users/{id}

Request and respone format is json Fractal includes are supported via $_GET['include']. Validation rules for create and update can be set by overwriting rulesForCreate and rulesForUpdate in your controller.

This skeleton is not a silver bullet but in many cases it can be either exactly what you need or can be used as a decent starting point for your api.

You can check https://github.com/Arrilot/laravel-api-generator/blob/master/src/Skeleton/BaseController.php for more info.

If you don't like the Skeleton just stop inheriting it in the base controller - Api\Controllers\Controller and overwrite the controller stub in your config to remove model() and transformer() methods.

Configuration

All paths and generator's stubs are configurable.

https://github.com/Arrilot/laravel-api-generator/blob/master/src/config/config.php