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.
Prerequisites
Ensure you have the following set up:
- Laravel 9+ installed.
- A database configured in your
.envfile. - A
Vehiclemodel and migration created.
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
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);
}
}
 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)
];
}
}
Registering Routes
Update your routes/api.php to include:
use App\Http\Controllers\VehicleController;
Route::resource('vehicle', VehicleController::class);
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.
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.
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