Laravel 3 - RESTful API

Question

How do I create the Routes for a RESTful API in Laravel 3?

I want to use GET, PUT, POST and DELETE in order to create an API.

I want all Routes to be prefixed with /v1/

So, I can do this:

http://api.example.com/v1/controller/method/parameter and just create the relevant controllers to check for Auth and perform actions.

Answer 1

I would suggest you using laravel 4 instead of laravel 3. Laravel 4 is really good at creating RESTful APIs and you can get started pretty fast. Here is a how to:

http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/laravel-4-a-start-at-a-restful-api/

Also watch this video if you are new to APIs

https://blog.apigee.com/detail/restful_api_design

What they suggest is passing parameters like so: api.test.com/v1/dogs?state=running

I recently started of with developing a restful API service myself using laravel 4 and it is going pretty well so far. Also laravel 4 is said to release in May.

Answer 2

With already existing routes, I would presume that you would need to add a filter with 'before' then prefix the "url" passing it back to the original route.

So in routes.php, something like:

Route::get('login', 'user@login', array('before' => 'guest'));
Route::post('login', 'user@login', array('before' => 'guest'));
Route::get('logout', 'user@logout', array('before' => 'auth'));

Route::filter('before', function()
{
    // Do stuff before every request to your application...
        $url = "test";
        $controller = "user@test";
        $filter = array('before' => 'guest');
        return Route::get('/v1/' . $url, $controller, $filter);
});

But I'm not sure how you can fill in the $url, $controller, $filter with the incoming request (maybe Request:: has something).

Though I'm new to Laravel too, and haven't looked into Events and Filters yet.