RESTful API Architecture for dynamic searches - php

Question

I would be interested in some API theory. When I build up the REST Resources, who do you handle such things, like a search by the user for a resource without knowing details. Lets say I got the resource "taxi". So I could build up my API like this:
http://api.megataxi.com/v1/taxis
to get all taxis in my database. Lets say, the user's app will submit its current position with lat and lng, and I am searching for the nearest taxi around the user. What would be the best practice here? I would have gone for:
http://api.megataxi.com/v1/taxis/getTaxisInRange
So my routes file would have something like:
Route::post('/taxis/getTaxisInRange, 'TaxiCOntroller#getTaxisInRange');
but usually I would think the way to go would be done like:
http://api.megataxi.com/v1/taxis/list?lat=100&lng=100
But how would I reflect something like this in my routes?

Answer 1

To answer the second part of your question: how would I reflect something like this in my routes?
You could do something like this:
Route::get('taxis/lat/{lat}/lang/{lng}', function($lat, $lng) {
echo 'lat: '. $lat;
echo '<br>';
echo 'lng: '. $lng;
});
So you could hit the URL like: taxis/lat/100/lng/100
Or
Route::get('taxis', function() {
echo 'lat: '. \Input::get('lat');
echo '<br>';
echo 'lng: '. \Input::get('lng');
});
which would allow: taxis?lat=100&lng=100
If you're subscribed to laracasts.com you should check this out: https://laracasts.com/series/incremental-api-development