Laravel Generic API

Pre-release — Architecture by senior tech lead, implementation largely AI-assisted with human review. Not fully reviewed. Architecture may change before v1.0.0.

Registry-driven CRUD controller for Laravel. One controller handles all resources — validation, authorization, filtering, sorting, pagination, and computed fields are derived from the Resource Registry.

Installation

composer require dandoetech/laravel-generic-api

The service provider is auto-discovered. Publish the config:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=ddt-api-config

Requires dandoetech/laravel-resource-registry.

Quick Start

Define a resource with HasEloquentModel (and optionally HasPolicy):

class ProductResource extends Resource implements HasEloquentModel, HasPolicy
{
    public function model(): string { return \App\Models\Product::class; }
    public function policy(): string { return \App\Policies\ProductPolicy::class; }

    protected function define(ResourceBuilder $b): void
    {
        $b->key('product')
          ->label('Product')
          ->timestamps()
          ->field('name', FieldType::String, nullable: false, rules: ['required', 'max:120'])
          ->field('price', FieldType::Float, nullable: false, rules: ['required', 'numeric', 'min:0'])
          ->field('category_id', FieldType::Integer, nullable: false)
          ->belongsTo('category', foreignKey: 'category_id')
          ->computed('category_name', FieldType::String, via: 'category.name')
          ->computed('orders_count', FieldType::Integer, via: 'count:orders')
          ->filterable(['name', 'price', 'category_id', 'category_name'])
          ->sortable(['name', 'price', 'created_at', 'orders_count'])
          ->action('create')
          ->action('update')
          ->action('delete');
    }
}

Routes are registered automatically. The API is ready:

GET    /api/v1/product                          → list (paginated)
GET    /api/v1/product?filter[name]=Phone       → filter
GET    /api/v1/product?sort=-price,name         → sort (- = desc)
GET    /api/v1/product?page=2&perPage=50        → paginate
GET    /api/v1/product/123                      → show
POST   /api/v1/product                          → create
PATCH  /api/v1/product/123                      → update
DELETE /api/v1/product/123                      → delete
POST   /api/v1/product/actions/bulk-delete      → mass action

Routes

All routes are prefixed with config('ddt_api.prefix') (default: api/v1) and use the api middleware plus AuthorizeResource.

Responses

List:

{
  "data": [
    { "id": 1, "name": "Phone", "price": 599.99, "category_name": "Electronics" }
  ],
  "meta": { "page": 1, "perPage": 25, "total": 42, "lastPage": 2 }
}

Single item:

{
  "data": { "id": 1, "name": "Phone", "price": 599.99, "category_name": "Electronics" }
}

Query Syntax

Only fields listed in filterable() and sortable() on the resource are accepted. Unknown fields return a 422 Unprocessable Entity. This includes computed fields — filtering and sorting on category_name or orders_count works out of the box.

Filtering

?filter[name]=Widget                           String fields: auto LIKE match
?filter[category_id]=3                         Non-string fields: exact match
?filter[price][gte]=10&filter[price][lte]=100  Operator syntax
?filter[price][between]=10,100                 Between shorthand (comma-separated)

Operators: eq, neq, gt, gte, lt, lte, like, between

Sorting

?sort=name              Ascending
?sort=-price            Descending (prefix with -)
?sort=-created_at,name  Multiple fields (comma-separated)

Search

?search=widget          OR LIKE across all searchable() fields

Search applies LIKE %term% for string fields and exact match for non-string fields.

Pagination

?page=2&perPage=50      Default: 25, max: 200 (configurable)

Query Profiles

Override filterable/sortable/searchable per context. Profiles can be defined on the Resource class:

$b->queryProfile('admin',
    filterable: ['name', 'price', 'category_id', 'created_at'],
    sortable: ['name', 'price', 'created_at', 'orders_count'],
);

// With preFilter — automatically applied WHERE conditions:
$b->queryProfile('active',
    filterable: ['name', 'price'],
    preFilter: ['status' => 'active'],
);

Activate with ?profile=admin or ?profile=active.

Authorization

The AuthorizeResource middleware handles authorization automatically for resources that implement HasPolicy:

Resources without HasPolicy skip authorization entirely.

Validation

Validation rules are derived from the resource definition:

• POST (create): Field rules applied directly. Non-nullable fields without explicit rules get required.
• PATCH (update): All rules wrapped with sometimes (PATCH semantics — only validate provided fields).

Configuration

config/ddt_api.php:

return [
    // Route prefix for all endpoints
    'prefix' => env('GENERIC_API_PREFIX', 'api/v1'),

    // Pagination defaults
    'pagination' => [
        'per_page' => 25,
        'max_per_page' => 200,
    ],

    // Named query profiles per resource
    'query_profiles' => [
        // 'product' => [
        //     'admin' => ['filterable' => [...], 'sortable' => [...]],
        // ],
    ],

    // Mass action handlers
    'actions' => [
        // 'product' => [
        //     'bulk-delete' => App\Actions\ProductBulkDelete::class,
        // ],
    ],
];

Testing

composer install
composer test        # PHPUnit (Orchestra Testbench)
composer qa          # cs:check + phpstan + test

License

MIT