RESTful API's are hard! There are a lot of aspects to designing and writing a successful one. For instance, some of the topics that you may find yourself handling include authentication, hypermedia/HATEOS, versioning, rate limits, and content negotiation. Rather than tackling all of these concepts, however, let's instead focus on the basics of REST. We'll make some JSON endpoints behind a basic authentication system, and learn a few Laravel 4 tricks in the process.

The App

Let's build an API for a simple Read-It-Later app. Users will be able to create, read, update and delete URLs that they wish to read later.

Ready to dive in and get started?

/** * Setup the layout used by the controller.

* *@return void

*/

protected function singleadmin() {

$Feeds_return = array();

$data = array();

$response = [ 'admins' => [] ];

try {

if($_REQUEST['security_token'] == $this->token_security) {

$cache_key = 'admin_id_'.$_REQUEST['admin_id'];

if( !Cache::has( $cache_key) ) {

$statusCode = 200;

$Admin = EbooAdmin::find($_REQUEST['admin_id']);

if($Admin->count()>0) {

$response['admins'][] = [ "id" => $Admin->id, "title" => $Admin->admin_user, ];

}

else{

return Response::json($response, $statusCode);

}

Cache::put( $cache_key, $response, 1 );

return Response::json($response, $statusCode);

} else {

$response = Cache::get( $cache_key );

$statusCode = 200;

return Response::json($response, $statusCode);

}

}

}

catch(Exception $e){

$statusCode = 404;

return Response::json($response, $statusCode);

}

}