API Platform

API Platform is a powerful yet easy-to-use full stack framework dedicated to API-driven projects and implementing the Jamstack architecture.

Why Use API Platform for Laravel Projects?

API Platform is the easiest way to create state-of-the-art web APIs using Laravel!

Key Features of API Platform:

• Automatically expose nice UIs and playgrounds to develop using your API (Swagger UI and GraphiQL)
• Automatically paginate your collections
• Add validation logic using Laravel Form Request Validation
• And much more...

Let’s dive into how to use API Platform with Laravel.

Step 1: Installing Laravel

API Platform can be installed easily on new and existing Laravel projects. If you already have an existing project, skip directly to the next section.

If you don’t have an existing Laravel project, create one. All Laravel installation methods are supported. For instance, you can use Composer:

composer create-project laravel/laravel my-api-platform-laravel-app
cd my-api-platform-laravel-app

Step 2: Installing API Platform

To install API Platform, run the following:

composer require api-platform/laravel

Step 3: Publishing Config and Assets

Once API Platform is installed, you can use the Artisan command to publish its config and assets:🏀

php artisan api-platform:install

To start the development server, run:

php artisan serve

You can now visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/ to see your API in action! While it's still empty, the documentation will be automatically generated.

Conclusion

API Platform simplifies API development in Laravel by automatically generating UI, handling pagination, and enabling request validation, among other things. With just a few commands, you can get your API up and running with all the modern tools developers love.