Create a Simple Laravel CRUD API

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3 months ago

Congratulations on building your first Laravel 13 API endpoint (Part 1 Tutorial). Now that you understand the basics of API routing and returning JSON responses, you’re ready to explore more powerful Laravel features.

Part 2 – Create a Simple Laravel CRUD API

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a basic API for managing products. This will help you understand how Laravel works with controllers, models, migrations, and JSON responses.

What You Will Build

You will create an API that can:

Show all products
Show one product
Create a new product
Update an existing product
Delete a product

This is called CRUD:

Create
Read
Update
Delete

Step 1: Create a Controller

A controller helps keep your code organized. Instead of writing all logic inside routes, you place the logic inside a controller.

Run this command:

php artisan make:controller ProductController

This will create a new file here:

app/Http/Controllers/ProductController.php

Step 2: Create a Model and Migration

A model represents a database table.

Run this command:

php artisan make:model Product -m

This creates:

A model file in app/Models/Product.php
A migration file in database/migrations/

Step 3: Define the Database Table

Open the migration file inside database/migrations/.

You will see a function like this:

public function up(): void
{
    Schema::create('products', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('name');
        $table->text('description')->nullable();
        $table->decimal('price', 10, 2);
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

This creates a products table with:

id
name
description
price
created_at
updated_at

Step 3.1: Configure the `.env` File Before Migrating

Before running the migration, you must connect Laravel to your database.

Open the .env file in the root of your project and update the database settings.

Example for MySQL:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_api
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

Important

Make sure you create the database first in your MySQL server before running the migration.

For example, you can create a database named:

laravel_api

After updating the .env file and creating the database, save the file and then run the migration.

Now run the migration:

php artisan migrate

Step 4: Add Fillable Fields to the Model

Open app/Models/Product.php and update it like this:

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Product extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = [
        'name',
        'description',
        'price',
    ];
}

The $fillable property allows Laravel to insert these fields safely.

Step 5: Add Routes

Open routes/api.php and add these routes:

use App\Http\Controllers\ProductController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::get('/products', [ProductController::class, 'index']);
Route::get('/products/{id}', [ProductController::class, 'show']);
Route::post('/products', [ProductController::class, 'store']);
Route::put('/products/{id}', [ProductController::class, 'update']);
Route::delete('/products/{id}', [ProductController::class, 'destroy']);

These routes connect URLs to controller methods.

Why the URL does not include `/api` here

When you place routes inside routes/api.php, Laravel automatically adds the /api prefix.

So this route:

Route::get('/products', [ProductController::class, 'index']);

becomes:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/products

If your Laravel 13 project does not already include routes/api.php, make sure the API routes file is enabled in your application setup.

Step 6: Write the Controller Code

Open app/Http/Controllers/ProductController.php and replace the content with this:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\Product;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class ProductController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return response()->json(Product::all(), 200);
    }

    public function show($id)
    {
        $product = Product::find($id);

        if (!$product) {
            return response()->json([
                'message' => 'Product not found'
            ], 404);
        }

        return response()->json($product, 200);
    }

    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $validated = $request->validate([
            'name' => 'required|string|max:255',
            'description' => 'nullable|string',
            'price' => 'required|numeric',
        ]);

        $product = Product::create($validated);

        return response()->json([
            'message' => 'Product created successfully',
            'product' => $product
        ], 201);
    }

    public function update(Request $request, $id)
    {
        $product = Product::find($id);

        if (!$product) {
            return response()->json([
                'message' => 'Product not found'
            ], 404);
        }

        $validated = $request->validate([
            'name' => 'sometimes|required|string|max:255',
            'description' => 'nullable|string',
            'price' => 'sometimes|required|numeric',
        ]);

        $product->update($validated);

        return response()->json([
            'message' => 'Product updated successfully',
            'product' => $product
        ], 200);
    }

    public function destroy($id)
    {
        $product = Product::find($id);

        if (!$product) {
            return response()->json([
                'message' => 'Product not found'
            ], 404);
        }

        $product->delete();

        return response()->json([
            'message' => 'Product deleted successfully'
        ], 200);
    }
}

Step 7: Test the API

Start the Laravel server:

php artisan serve

Now test the endpoints in your browser or Postman.

Create a Product

POST

http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/products

Request body in JSON:

{
    "name": "Laptop",
    "description": "A powerful laptop",
    "price": 1200
}

Get All Products

GET

http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/products

Get One Product

GET

http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/products/1

Update a Product

PUT

http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/products/1

Request body in JSON:

{
    "name": "Gaming Laptop",
    "price": 1500
}

If the update request does not work when you use raw JSON in the request body, try using x-www-form-urlencoded in Postman.

Delete a Product

DELETE

http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/products/1

Step 8: Understand Validation

Validation checks if the data sent by the user is correct.

Example:

$request->validate([
    'name' => 'required|string|max:255',
    'price' => 'required|numeric',
]);

This means:

name is required
name must be a string
name cannot be longer than 255 characters
price is required
price must be a number

If validation fails, Laravel automatically returns an error response.

Step 9: What is Eloquent?

Eloquent is Laravel’s built-in ORM.

ORM stands for Object-Relational Mapping.

Eloquent allows you to work with database tables using PHP code instead of writing raw SQL.

Example:

Product::all();
Product::find(1);
Product::create($data);
$product->update($data);
$product->delete();

Step 10: Next Topic — Authentication

Once you understand CRUD, the next step is to protect your API.

Authentication helps you make sure only logged-in users can access certain endpoints.

In Laravel, you can use tools like:

Laravel Sanctum
Laravel Passport

These tools help you secure your API with tokens.

Summary

In this tutorial, you learned how to:

Create a controller
Create a model
Create a migration
Build a products table
Use Eloquent ORM
Create CRUD API endpoints
Validate request data
Return JSON responses
Understand why API routes belong in routes/api.php

This is the foundation of building real-world Laravel APIs.