Laravel CRUD And API webservice - php

Question

I am a beginner PHP developer, i was implementing CRUD with Laravel 5.4 framework, and all works fine so far.
But i was then trying to make this code functional in website and mobile as well, so i get to know web services and it's protocols like Rest,Soap, i was successfully managed to work with them and build small size scripts for self learning and things get better.
When i try to apply what i have learned on my CRUD i stuck , there is no links to structure my code over just routes and a with api.php,web.php files , i don't know where to build my server or client scripts and how to link them in laravel even though i managed to implement this in native php , but things a little bit confusing for me in laravel i surfed the internet and found nothing useful for me actually ..
i will provide simple of my CRUD code on the (Create New User Function) .and wish if any one could help me or put me on track to start using this technique with different projects.
My Controller
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\user;
class AddController extends Controller
{
public function create(){ //create new user page
return view('add.create');
}
public function store(){ //store new user added by a clint
$this->validate(request(), [ //validation for request records
'name' => 'required',
'email' => 'required',
'password' => 'required|min:8',
'password_confirmation' => 'required|same:password'
]);
$user = User::create([ //create new user with the request records
'name' => request('name'),
'email' => request('email'),
'password' =>bcrypt(request('password'))
]);
session()->flash('message','Changes has been Applied'); //flash a succcess message
return redirect()->home(); // redirect to home after submitting the new user
}
}
My Route (not a resource route , just a native route )
// add new user routes
Route::get('add','AddController#create')->middleware('authenticated');
Route::post('add','AddController#store');
My Model
is the Built-In User.php model provided by laravel.
My View add.create.blade.php
<!-- this is the view of the add new user tab , extending master layout and it's components-->
#extends('layouts.master')
#section('content')
<div class="col-md-8">
<h3>Enter the Values of the new User</h3>
<form method="POST" action="add">
{{csrf_field()}}
<div class="form group">
<label for="name">*Name:</label>
<input type="name" class="form-control" id="name" name="name">
</div>
<div class="form group">
<label for="Email">*Email Address:</label>
<input type="email" class="form-control" id="email" name="email">
</div>
<div class="form group">
<label for="password">*Password:</label>
<input type="password" class="form-control" id="password" name="password">
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="password confirmation">*Confirm Password:</label>
<input type="password" class="form-control" id="password_confirmation" name="password_confirmation" >
</div>
<br>
<div class="form-group">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Add User</button>
</div>
#include('layouts.errors')
</form>
</div>
#endsection
that's what i have reached so far and i wish if any one tell me how to apply api to this code to make it function on mobile as well , i really appreciate any help in advance .

Answer 1

Right now you controller returns a view file - HTML template with some PHP variables. Your API doesn't need that HTML code, so first of all, you should get rid of it.
Your API route(in API case route is called 'endpoint') should return information in structured format - if you are using REST API, you should return data in JSON format(http://jsonapi.org/examples/ - example of JSON responses), if you are using SOAP - response should be in XML(for first time I would recommend you to use REST, as it's much simpler to build REST API).
A good practice would be to use Transformers while building your response(take a look https://medium.com/#haydar_ai/how-to-start-using-transformers-in-laravel-4ff0158b325f here for example).
You should also create your endpoints in api.php file - this file is specially for this needs. Don't forget that all routes in this file have a prefix of 'api'.
There is a great video-series in https://laracasts.com/series/incremental-api-development, in which simple REST api is build.