README

A Laravel database and API generator.

Author: Thierry DE LAPEYRE

Features

Generate table migration file, controller file, model file and add the routes
One artisan command to generate everything with logs
Fetch the foreign table record or list of records linked to your table
Validate fields and return comprehensive errors
Separate the table constraints and sort the table creation to prevent migration errors

Requires

PHP >= 7
Laravel >= 5.5

Install

composer require grabmy/laravel-api-builder

Additional artisan commands must appear when you type:

php artisan list

The artisan command is "make:api" and you must give the path of a JSON configuration file as a parameter. The optional verbose -v parameter can show more logs.

php artisan make:api ./api.json -v

Quick start

Create a configuration file "api.json" in the root folder of your Laravel project:

{
  "tables": {
    "article": {
      "fields": {
        "id": "increments",
        "name": "string|required|min:2",
        "description": "string:200|nullable",
        "published": "bool|default:0"
      },
      "api": {
        "endpoint": "article",
        "methods": ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE"]
      }
    }
  }
}

In this example, we define a simple table and API behavior. A table will be created with an integer incrementing "id", a string "name", a string "description" with length 200 and a boolean "published" with default false (0).

To boostrap your table migration and create all the files for the API in your project, you must run a command.

WARNING: If you already have a model, controller or migration file with the same filenames, the files will be overwritten.

php artisan make:api ./api.json

If everything works, you can see the files generated in green. You still have to run the migration that creates the table in your database.

WARNING: the basic migrate command will also destroy and recreate other tables you have in the migration of your project

php artisan migrate fresh

Assuming your project is accessible at "http://127.0.0.1:8000/", you can now:

Get all content of the table article with:
GET http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/article
Get just one item of the table article by its id:
GET http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/article/{id}
Create an article with a name, description and published values in JSON body:
POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/article
Update an article with the modified values in JSON body:
PUT http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/article/{id}
Delete an article:
DELETE http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/article/{id}

Configuration file

The configuration file contains the definition of the tables and the behavior of the API. Each tables have their fields definition.

Multiple tables:

{
  "tables": {
    "article": {
      ...
    },
    "category": {
      ...
    },
    "user": {
      ...
    }
  }
}

Multiple fields for each table:

{
  "tables": {
    "article": {
      "fields": {
        "id": "integer",
        "name": "string",
        "description": "string",
        "content": "text"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can have multiple options for a field. Each options are separated by the character pipe "|". The main option is the type of the field, which I usually put first (it's easier to find).

Multiple options:

{
  "tables": {
    "product": {
      "fields": {
        "id": "uuid|primary",
        "name": "string|required",
        "description": "text|nullable",
        "quantity": "integer"
      }
    }
  }
}

An option can have some additional parameters. Each parameters are separated by the character semicolon ":".

Options with multiple parameters:

{
  ...
        "description": "string:200",
        "published": "bool|default:0",
        "category_id": "integer|link:category:id|nullable"
  ...
  }

The available requests

Getting the record list

Url: GET /api/endpoint

In our example if we have two articles, GET http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/article will result:

Status code: 200

Body:

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "First article",
    "description": "This is my first article",
    "content": "<p>...</p>"
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Aviation and aerospace",
    "description": "AS9102 is the Aerospace Standard",
    "content": "<p>...</p>"
  }
]

Getting one record

Url: GET /endpoint/{id}

In our example, GET http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/article/1 will result:

Status code: 200

Body:

{
  "id": 1,
  "name": "First article",
  "description": "This is my first article",
  "content": "<p>...</p>"
}

Creating a record

@TODO

Updating a record

@TODO

Deleting a record

@TODO

Errors

@TODO

Field types

Type	Description	Parameters
string	Just a string	optional length
text	Long text
int	Integer
bool	Boolean
float	A float number
uuid	An UUID
increments	An incrementing integer
one-to-many	A list of records from another table	Table, field
many-to-many	A list of records from another table	Table, field

UUID

If the field has an UUID type and is primary, the API will generate an UUID on POST creation. If the UUID field is not primary, on POST creation and PUT update, the API will automatically check if the passed string is a valid UUID.

Increments

@TODO

List

@TODO

Other options

Option	Description	Parameters
max	Check the maximum length	Length
min	Check the minimum length	Length
type	Check the type	Type
required	Check if a value exists
nullable	Field value can be null and optional
default	Set the default value	Value
primary	Set the field as primary key
omit	Don't return the field value in API
one-to-one	Link the foreign key to another table	table, field
as	Return this field value with another name
cascade	Delete record if foreign record is deleted	type

Type option

Return an error if the JSON don't have the correct type on POST creation and PUT update. List of types:

integer
float
string
UUID

{
  ...
    "name": "string|type:string",
    "number": "integer|type:integer",
    "valid": "boolean|type:boolean"
  ...
}

One to many

@TODO

Cascade

The cascade option must be puts in one-to-one or one-to-many fields.

{
  "tables": {
    "order": {
      "fields": {
        "product_id": "integer|one-to-one:product:id|cascade",
        "categories": "one-to-many:category:order_id|cascade",
        "image": "file|cascade",
  ...
}

If a record from table order is deleted, the previous API config will:

Delete a record from table product if order.product_id is set
Delete a list of records from table category if category records are linked to this order record
Delete the file path image if it exists

API configuration

Endpoint

@TODO

Fetch

The fetch feature is a powerfull feature that allows you to tell the API to fetch records or array of records from other tables.

In the fetchable parameter:

Set a field value to true will fetch this field record and every records in it
Set a field value to false will only fetch the field record but not the records in it
No field or set the field to an empty object will not fetch the field record

The default value for the fetchable parameter is true.

For example with this configuration:

{
  "tables": {
    "article": {
      "fields": {
        "id": "increments",
        "name": "string|required|min:2",
        "category_id": "integer|link:category:id|as:category",
        "websites": "list:website:article_id"
      },
      "api": {
        "endpoint": "article",
        "fetchable": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Here, we have a link to a record of the "category" table and a list of records of the "website" table. Setting "fetchable" to true will fetch all fields linked to our table (type "list" or option "link").

The "as" option is mandatory with the "link" option. It means the category record will be placed in a field with the name "category" instead of "category_id". The "websites" field is a list, so it will get an array of records from the "website" table where article_id is set to the value of the id of the article.

Now, when we are getting one article record:

{
  "id": 1,
  "name": "First article",
  "category": {
    "id": 5,
    "name": "Dummy",
    "tag_id": 3
  },
  "websites": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "url": "http://www.mywebsite.com/"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "url": "https://www.google.com/"
    }
  ]
}

If we set the fetchable parameter to false, we get the article record without fetching any linked record in it.

{
  ...
        "fetchable": false
  ...
}

Our article from the API becomes flat:

{
  "id": 1,
  "name": "First article",
  "category_id": 5,
}

We don't see the "websites" field because it is not saved field in the database, so it will be available only if the websites records are fetched. We see now the "category_id" field which is not filtered out.

You can also set the fetchable parameter to just fetch "category" in our article and fetch everything in it but not fetching "websites". So the "tag_id" the category record becomes a record as we can imagine it's a link to a tag table.

{
  ...
        "fetchable": {
          "category": true
        }
  ...
}

The category is fetched and every field that can be fetched in it:

{
  "id": 1,
  "name": "First article",
  "category": {
    "id": 5,
    "name": "Dummy",
    "tag": {
      "code": "DUMMY",
      "searchable": true
    }
  }
}

You can set the API result as you want and go as deep as you like without creating an infinite loop. Be aware that the more you fetch records from other tables, the slower your API will be, especially if you fetch in an array.

Fetch POST and PUT option

@TODO

Methods

@TODO

What this API generator doesn't do

Table with multiple fields as primary key
Change the path of generated files (models, controllers ...)

TODO

Save and restore database in JSON files
Add an error on wrong api methods
Add an error if "link" dont have an "as" option
Add type check for email, ip, url
Add field type json

DONE

Cascade deletion
Add field type json
Fix wrong fields on update and fillable
Add "many-to-many" type
Make a default sort number for tables

PENDING

Add where clause to one-to-many and one-to-one fields
Change migration, model, controller, api route path in config
Change namespace and class extends in config

grabmy / laravel-api-builder

Maintainers

Details

README

Features

Requires

Install

Quick start

Configuration file

The available requests

Getting the record list

Getting one record

Creating a record

Updating a record

Deleting a record

Errors

Field types

UUID

Increments

List

Other options

Type option

One to many

Cascade

API configuration

Endpoint

Fetch

Fetch POST and PUT option

Methods

What this API generator doesn't do

TODO

DONE

PENDING