Laravel API Boilerplate

How to build an API in a day

By Max Snow

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• PHP Developer since 2004-5 (2008 commercially)
• Worked to build countless projects...
• Working as Engineering Lead @ Cover Genius
• http://github.com/specialtactics
• https://maxsnow.me
• https://twitter.com/devopmax

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The Why (of why every project should be API)

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Good reasons to write your backend as a REST API

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• Build once, use everywhere
• Multiple frontends
• Mobile apps
• Third-party API consumers
• Easier to test & refactor
• Easier to manage
• Strong decoupling
• Rich frontends
• Enables Microservices

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The How (of making it easier)

• Strong conventions and principles
• Because REST APIs have strong conventions and principles, we can reuse code to implement their functionality
• Probably 70-80% of API related logic in an application is very similar
• We can use Laravel to great effect in order to generalise about the things that are different for each resource (Model)
• Laravel and REST actually have a lot of similarities
• Simplicity, convention over configuration, interface oriented, resources as models

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Quite often, the problem is that it takes time to invest in new tech

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This is especially true in any company that wants to prioritise new features over anything perceived as risky.

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What does this API Boilerplate provide you?

• Get moving extremely quickly with API development
• Almost no code necessary for bread-and-butter REST
• Extend and customise only when necessary for custom business logic
• Lots of conveniences and features
• Complimentary docker setup
• Minimalist & largely unopinionated
• Guidance for adding complex functionality
• Significant roadmap for some pretty awesome integrations and features

• Does not implement your business logic
• Does not magically know exactly how you want your API to be and behave
• Does not integrate with every one of the packages you might want to use
• Does not provide a frontend

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The Benefits of using this boilerplate

• Shift the focus away from boring, repetitive code, and more towards business-specific logic and hence delivering real value
• Less code is better, a conventional approach to reducing complexity is good
• Less code also means less tests to write!
• Uses normal OOP and existing Laravel conventions where possible
• Easy to extend and customise logic
• All heavy lifting is done by it’s own dependency package
• Easy to update
• Preference is to be minimalist, will not try to redefine everything and does not require a great deal of learning on how to use it

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Where can this be used?

• You need to build a large, enterprise scalable system from scratch
• You need to build a small microservice
• You are beginning to take apart the monolith
• You need a proof of concept / RAD
• You are working on a hobby project

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Reference

• https://github.com/specialtactics/laravel-api-boilerplate
• https://github.com/specialtactics/laravel-api-boilerplate/wiki

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Thank You!

Come chat to me @ after dark