Best Practices for Building Laravel RESTful APIs in 2024

Building effective APIs is a key competency for any successful backend developer. APIs are the backbone of modern mobile applications and single-page web apps.

Laravel offers a wealth of tools to help you build APIs that adhere to best practices. In this article, I assume you already have some experience with Laravel API development. My aim is not to cover everything but to focus on important tips.

1. Use Appropriate HTTP Methods

HTTP methods serve as the “language” of the web. Using them correctly ensures better communication between your API and its consumers. For instance:

• To retrieve a resource (like reading a book in a library), use GET.
• To create a new resource, use POST.
• For updating an existing resource, use PUT or PATCH.
• To delete a resource, use DELETE.

Laravel simplifies this by providing route methods that correspond to these HTTP actions. Here’s an example:

Route::get('/posts', [PostController::class, 'index']);
Route::post('/posts', [PostController::class, 'store']);
Route::put('/posts/{post}', [PostController::class, 'update']);
Route::delete('/posts/{post}', [PostController::class, 'destroy']);