Building a Laravel API for Vehicle Management

In this article, we’ll walk through creating a RESTful API in Laravel for managing vehicles. We’ll cover basic CRUD operations using Laravel's powerful resource system.

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Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following set up:

• Laravel 9+ installed.
• A database configured in your .env file.
• A Vehicle model and migration created.

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You can generate the model and migration with:

php artisan make:model Vehicle -m

Update your migration to define columns for model, rating, and company:

Schema::create('vehicles', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id();
    $table->string('model');
    $table->integer('rating');
    $table->string('company');
    $table->timestamps();
});

Run the migration:

php artisan migrate

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Setting Up the Controller

Create a controller for the Vehicle resource:

php artisan make:controller VehicleController

Here’s the updated controller with CRUD functionality:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Http\Resources\VehicleCollection;
use App\Http\Resources\VehicleResource;
use App\Models\Vehicle;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Http\Response;

final class VehicleController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Display a listing of the resource.
     *
     * @return VehicleCollection
     */
    public function index(): VehicleCollection
    {
        $vehicles = Vehicle::paginate(10);

        return new VehicleCollection($vehicles);
    }

    /**
     * Store a newly created resource in storage.
     *
     * @param Request $request
     * @return Response
     */
    public function store(Request $request): Response
    {
        $validateData = $request->validate([
            'model' => 'required|string|max:255',
            'rating' => 'required|integer|min:1|max:5',
            'company' => 'required|string|max:255',
        ]);

        $vehicle = Vehicle::create($validateData);

        return response(new VehicleResource($vehicle), 201);
    }

    /**
     * Display the specified resource.
     *
     * @param Vehicle $vehicle
     * @return VehicleResource
     */
    public function show(Vehicle $vehicle): VehicleResource
    {
        return new VehicleResource($vehicle);
    }

    /**
     * Update the specified resource in storage.
     *
     * @param Request $request
     * @param Vehicle $vehicle
     * @return Response
     */
    public function update(Request $request, Vehicle $vehicle): Response
    {
        $validateData = $request->validate([
            'model' => 'sometimes|required|string|max:255',
            'rating' => 'sometimes|required|integer|min:1|max:5',
            'company' => 'sometimes|required|string|max:255',
        ]);

        $vehicle->update($validateData);

        return response(new VehicleResource($vehicle), 200);
    }

    /**
     * Remove the specified resource from storage.
     *
     * @param Vehicle $vehicle
     * @return Response
     */
    public function destroy(Vehicle $vehicle): Response
    {
        $vehicle->delete();

        return response(null, 204);
    }
}

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 Setting Up Resources

Use Laravel’s resource classes to structure your API response.

VehicleResource

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Http\Resources;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Support\Arrayable;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource;
use JsonSerializable;

final class VehicleResource extends JsonResource
{
    public static $wrap = 'vehicle';

    /**
     * Transform the resource into an array.
     *
     * @param  Request  $request
     * @return array|Arrayable|JsonSerializable
     */
    public function toArray($request): array|JsonSerializable|Arrayable
    {
        return [
            'model_name' => $this->model,
            'rating' => $this->rating,
            'company' => $this->company,
        ];
    }

    public function with($request): array
    {
        return ['status' => 'success'];
    }
}

VehicleCollection

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Http\Resources;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Support\Arrayable;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\ResourceCollection;
use JsonSerializable;

final class VehicleCollection extends ResourceCollection
{
    /**
     * Transform the resource collection into an array.
     *
     * @param Request $request
     * @return array|Arrayable|JsonSerializable
     */
    public function toArray($request): array|JsonSerializable|Arrayable
    {
        return [
            'data' => VehicleResource::collection($this->collection)
        ];
    }
}

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Registering Routes

Update your routes/api.php to include:

use App\Http\Controllers\VehicleController;

Route::resource('vehicle', VehicleController::class);

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Testing the API

You can test the API endpoints using tools like Postman or cURL. The endpoints include:

• GET /api/vehicles - List all vehicles.

• POST /api/vehicles - Create a new vehicle.

• GET /api/vehicles/{id} - Show a specific vehicle.

• PUT /api/vehicles/{id} - Update a specific vehicle.

• DELETE /api/vehicles/{id} - Delete a specific vehicle.

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Conclusion

This tutorial provides a simple yet effective way to build a Laravel API for vehicle management using resources and controllers. Feel free to customize the fields and validation rules based on your requirements.