How to make a REST API first web application in Laravel

Question

I want to make an API first application in Laravel. I don't know what is the best approach to do this, I will explain what I am trying to do, but please feel free to give answers how to do this in a different way.

I don't want all my frontend to be written in javascript and parse the JSON output of the API with angular.js or something similar. I want my Laravel application to produce the HTML views. I am trying to go down the road of having two controllers one on for the API and one for the web. For the show User action my routes.php looks like this:

# the web controller
Route::controller('user', 'WebUserController');

# the api controller 
Route::group(array('prefix' => 'api'), function() {
    Route::resource('user', 'UserController');
});

So /user will take me to WebUserController and /api/user will take me to the UserController. Now I want to put all my logic in the API UserController, and call its actions from the WebUserController. Here is the code for both of them:

class UserController extends BaseController 
{
    public function show($id)
    {
        $user = User::find($id);
        return Response::json(array('success'=>true,'user'=>$user->toArray()));
    }
}

class WebUserController extends UserController 
{
    public function getView($id) 
    {
         # call the show method of the API's User Controller
         $response =  $this->show($id);
         return View::make('user.view')->with('data', $response->getData());
    }
}

In the WebUserController I am able to get the json content of the response with getData(), but I am not able to get the headers and status code (they are protected properties of Illuminate\Http\JsonResponse).

I think that my approach might not be the best, so I am open to suggestions how to make this app.

EDIT: The question how to get the headers and status of the response has been answered by Drew Lewis, but I still think that there might be a better way how to design this

Answer 1

You should utilize the Repository / Gateway design pattern: please see the answers here.

For example, when dealing with the User model, first create a User Repository. The only responsibility of the user repository is to communicate with the database (performing CRUD operations). This User Repository extends a common base repository and implements an interface containing all methods you require:

class EloquentUserRepository extends BaseRepository implements UserRepository
{
    public function __construct(User $user) {
        $this->user = $user;
    }


    public function all() {
        return $this->user->all();
    }

    public function get($id){}

    public function create(array $data){}

    public function update(array $data){}

    public function delete($id){}

    // Any other methods you need go here (getRecent, deleteWhere, etc)

}

Then, create a service provider, which binds your user repository interface to your eloquent user repository. Whenever you require the user repository (by resolving it through the IoC container or injecting the dependency in the constructor), Laravel automatically gives you an instance of the Eloquent user repository you just created. This is so that, if you change ORMs to something other than eloquent, you can simply change this service provider and no other changes to your codebase are required:

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

class RepositoryServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider {

    public function register() {
        $this->app->bind(
            'lib\Repositories\UserRepository',        // Assuming you used these
            'lib\Repositories\EloquentUserRepository' // namespaces
        );
    }

}

Next, create a User Gateway, who's purpose is to talk to any number of repositories and perform any business logic of your application:

use lib\Repositories\UserRepository;

class UserGateway {

    protected $userRepository;

    public function __construct(UserRepository $userRepository) {
        $this->userRepository = $userRepository;
    }

        public function createUser(array $input)
        {
            // perform any sort of validation first
            return $this->userRepository->create($input);
        }

}

Finally, create your User web controller. This controller talks to your User Gateway:

class UserController extends BaseController 
{
    public function __construct(UserGatway $userGateway)
    {
        $this->userGateway = $userGateway;
    }

    public function create()
    {
        $user = $this->userGateway->createUser(Input::all());

    }
}

By structuring the design of your application in this way, you get several benefits: you achieve a very clear separation of concerns, since your application will be adhering to the Single Responsibility Principle (by separating your business logic from your database logic) . This enables you to perform unit and integration testing in a much easier manner, makes your controllers as slim as possible, as well as allowing you to easily swap out Eloquent for any other database if you desire in the future.

For example, if changing from Eloquent to Mongo, the only things you need to change are the service provider binding as well as creating a MongoUserRepository which implements the UserRepository interface. This is because the repository is the only thing talking to your database - it has no knowledge of anything else. Therefore, the new MongoUserRepository might look something like:

class MongoUserRepository extends BaseRepository implements UserRepository
{
    public function __construct(MongoUser $user) {
        $this->user = $user;
    }


    public function all() {
        // Retrieve all users from the mongo db
    }

    ...

}

And the service provider will now bind the UserRepository interface to the new MongoUserRepository:

 $this->app->bind(
        'lib\Repositories\UserRepository',       
        'lib\Repositories\MongoUserRepository'
);

Throughout all your gateways you have been referencing the UserRepository, so by making this change you're essentially telling Laravel to use the new MongoUserRepository instead of the older Eloquent one. No other changes are required.