Building APIs

Building APIs in Laravel

Laravel makes building APIs straightforward. Routes, controllers, and JSON responses work together seamlessly. You can build a full REST API without any extra packages.

Returning JSON Responses

Use the json method to return JSON from any route or controller. Laravel automatically sets the correct headers.

Route::get('/api/users', function () {
    return User::all();
});
    

You can also use response()->json() to set the status code and headers manually.

return response()->json([
    'data' => $users,
    'meta' => ['total' => $total],
], 200);
    

API Routes

Laravel separates API routes into the routes/api.php file. These routes are automatically prefixed with /api and don't use session or CSRF middleware.

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::prefix('v1')->group(function () {
    Route::get('/posts', [PostController::class, 'index']);
    Route::get('/posts/{post}', [PostController::class, 'show']);
    Route::post('/posts', [PostController::class, 'store']);
});
    

The RouteServiceProvider loads this file and applies the /api prefix.

API Resources

Resources transform your models into clean JSON structures. They give you full control over what fields appear in the response.

php artisan make:resource PostResource
    

Define the toArray method to control the output.

class PostResource extends JsonResource
{
    public function toArray($request)
    {
        return [
            'id' => $this->id,
            'title' => $this->title,
            'body' => $this->body,
            'created_at' => $this->created_at,
        ];
    }
}
    

Rate Limiting

Protect your APIs from abuse with rate limiting. Define rate limits in the RouteServiceProvider or directly in your routes.

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\RateLimiter;

Route::middleware('throttle:60,1')->group(function () {
    Route::get('/api/posts', [PostController::class, 'index']);
});
    

The throttle middleware limits each user to 60 requests per minute. Customize the limits based on your needs.