Laravel 11 REST API CRUD Tutorial

A CRUD REST API in Laravel 11 allows users to perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on resources using RESTful principles.

Let’s start to create a RESTful API CRUD operation application with Laravel 11 using Laravel Passport auth:

Step 1 – Install Laravel and Create a New Project

Run the following composer command to install and create new laravel project:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel passport-auth-example

Step 2: Install Laravel Passport

Install passport auth to create rest api:

cd passport-auth-example
php artisan install:api --passport

Step 3 – Configure Passport

Edit your user.php model from app/models folder, and add the HasApiTokens trait:

use Laravel\Passport\HasApiTokens;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use HasApiTokens, HasFactory, Notifiable;

    // Rest of your model code...
}

Edit config/auth.php file and API driver:

    [ 
         'web' => [ 
             'driver' => 'session', 
             'provider' => 'users', 
         ], 
         'api' => [ 
             'driver' => 'passport', 
             'provider' => 'users', 
         ], 
     ],

Step 4 – Create Model and Set Up Database

Create your models for perform crud operation from database:

php artisan make:model Post -m

Edit .env file and configure database details in it:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql 
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1 
DB_PORT=3306 
DB_DATABASE=here your database name here
DB_USERNAME=here database username here
DB_PASSWORD=here database password here

Run migration command to create tables into your configured database:

php artisan serve

Step 5 – Create CRUD and Auth API Routes

Next, define the routes for your API endpoints. Open your api.php file located at routes/api.php and define your routes:

use App\Http\Controllers\API\PassportAuthController;
use App\Http\Controllers\API\PostController;

Route::post('register', [PassportAuthController::class, 'register']);
Route::post('login', [PassportAuthController::class, 'login']);
 
Route::middleware('auth:api')->group(function () {
    Route::get('get-user', [PassportAuthController::class, 'userInfo']);
    Route::resource('posts', PostController::class);

});

Step 6 – Create Auth and CRUD Controller

Create a controller file by using the following command:

php artisan make:controller Api\PassportAuthController
php artisan make:controller API\PostController

Now implement authentication methods into it to handle login, registration and user detail functionality from database:

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers\API;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Models\User;
class AuthController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Registration Req
     */
    public function register(Request $request)
    {
        $this->validate($request, [
            'name' => 'required|min:4',
            'email' => 'required|email',
            'password' => 'required|min:8',
        ]);
 
        $user = User::create([
            'name' => $request->name,
            'email' => $request->email,
            'password' => bcrypt($request->password)
        ]);
 
        $token = $user->createToken('PassportAuth')->accessToken;
 
        return response()->json(['token' => $token], 200);
    }
 
    /**
     * Login Req
     */
    public function login(Request $request)
    {
        $data = [
            'email' => $request->email,
            'password' => $request->password
        ];
 
        if (auth()->attempt($data)) {
            $token = auth()->user()->createToken('PassportAuth')->accessToken;
            return response()->json(['token' => $token], 200);
        } else {
            return response()->json(['error' => 'Unauthorised'], 401);
        }
    }
    public function userInfo() 
    {
     $user = auth()->user();
     
     return response()->json(['user' => $user], 200);
    }
}

Implement CRUD operations in your postcontroller.php file.

namespace App\Http\Controllers\API;

use App\Models\Post;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class PostController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return Post::all();
    }

    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        return Post::create($request->all());
    }

    public function show($id)
    {
        return Post::findOrFail($id);
    }

    public function update(Request $request, $id)
    {
        $post = Post::findOrFail($id);
        $post->update($request->all());

        return $post;
    }

    public function destroy($id)
    {
        $post = Post::findOrFail($id);
        $post->delete();

        return 204;
    }
}

Step 7 – Test

Run artisan serve command to start the application server:

php artisan serve

Start Postman application and call these API for testing.