API routes in Laravel - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Building API Routes in Laravel

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple API for a book store. The API will allow users to get a list of books and add new books.

🎯 Goal: Build API routes in Laravel to handle requests for listing all books and adding a new book.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a route group with prefix api

Define a GET route /books that returns all books

Define a POST route /books that adds a new book

Use a controller named BookController with methods index and store

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

API routes are used to build backend services that mobile apps or frontend apps can call to get or send data.

💼 Career

Knowing how to define API routes in Laravel is essential for backend developers building RESTful services.

1

Create the initial API route group

Create a route group with prefix api in routes/api.php using Route::prefix('api')->group(function () { ... });

Laravel

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Route::prefix('api')->group(function () { ... }); to start the API routes.

2

Add a GET route for listing books

Inside the api route group, add a GET route /books that uses BookController@index.

Laravel

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::prefix('api')->group(function () {
    // Add GET route for /books here
});

Need a hint?

Use Route::get('/books', [BookController::class, 'index']); inside the group.

3

Add a POST route for adding a new book

Inside the api route group, add a POST route /books that uses BookController@store.

Laravel

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::prefix('api')->group(function () {
    Route::get('/books', [\App\Http\Controllers\BookController::class, 'index']);
    // Add POST route for /books here
});

Need a hint?

Use Route::post('/books', [BookController::class, 'store']); inside the group.

4

Complete the API routes with middleware

Add the auth:sanctum middleware to the api route group to protect the routes.

Laravel

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

// Add middleware to the api route group
Route::prefix('api')->group(function () {
    Route::get('/books', [\App\Http\Controllers\BookController::class, 'index']);
    Route::post('/books', [\App\Http\Controllers\BookController::class, 'store']);
});

Need a hint?

Add ->middleware('auth:sanctum') after prefix('api') to protect the routes.