PHP Laravel 8 - Best Naming Conventions for APIs ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This here are the basic naming conventions which are followed by most big tech companies that uses PHP.

This naming conventions is in compliance with Laravel [PHP] coding Standards with PSR specifications.

Best combined with SOLID Principles

And remember to follow the KISS Principle whenever possible

Listed here are the naming standards:

• For Classes, Interfaces/Contracts, Traits: use PascalCase
• For Constants: use TITLE_CASE
• For Functions/Methods, Class Properties, Variables: use camelCase
• For Array Indices/Database Field Names/Model Fillables/Model Relations: use lower_snake_case
• For Routes: use lower-kebab-case

Below are the standards use cases and samples :

For Classes, Interfaces/Contracts, Traits: usePascalCase

Class:

class AuthController extends Controller
{
    //
}

Interface/Contracts

interface LoginInterface 
{
    /**
}

Traits

trait Audit
{
    /**
}

For Constants: use TITLE_CASE

namespace App\Constants;

class AppConstant {
    const DEFAULT_PAGE = 1;
    const DEFAULT_PAGE_LIMIT = 10;
    const MAX_PAGE_LIMIT = 100;
    const ALPHANUMERIC_CHARACTERS = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';
    const NUMERIC_CHARACTERS = '0123456789';
    const ALPHA_CHARACTERS = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
    const UPPERCASE_ALPHA_CHARACTERS = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
    const LOWERCASE_ALPHA_CHARACTERS = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
}

For Functions/Methods, Class Properties, Variables: use camelCase

Functions/Methods

public function refreshToken() : JsonResponse {
        return $this->loginService->refreshToken();
    }

Class Properties

class AuthController extends Controller
{
    // these are the class properties
    protected $loginService;
    protected $logoutService;

}

Variables

public function __construct(LoginService $loginService, LogoutService $logoutService) {
        $this->loginService = $loginService;
        $this->logoutService = $logoutService;
    }

For Array Indices/Database Field Names/Model Fillables/Model Relations: use lower_snake_case

Array Indices

foreach($age as $x => $x_value) {
  return $x_value;
}

Database Field Names

 public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('audits', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('user_type')->nullable();
            $table->unsignedBigInteger('user_id')->nullable();
            $table->index(['user_id', 'user_type']);
        });
    }

Model Fillables

protected $fillable = [
        'first_name',
        'last_name',
        'username',
        'email',
        'password',

    ];

For Routes: use lower-kebab-case

Route::group(['middleware' => 'auth:api'], function() {
        Route::post('refresh-token', [AuthController::class, 'refreshToken']);
        Route::post('logout', [AuthController::class, 'logout']);
    });

Comments

[Can Celik]

Model fillables needs to match with database columns so that would work fine but any Class that is connected to database like Eloquent model classes, the class properties (camelCase) also needs to match with database columns(lower_snake_case).

[Kamal Hinduja]

Thanks for sharing use cases and samples of Laravel Topic.