Laravel 5 JSON API Mappings with Dingo

• Features
• Installation
• Usage
• JsonApiController
• Examples: Consuming the API
  • GET
  • POST
  • PUT
  • PATCH
  • DELETE
• GET Query Params: include, fields, sort and page
• POST/PUT/PATCH with Relationships
• Custom Response Headers
• Common Errors and Solutions

This package makes Laravel 5 JSON API Server Package and Dingo play well together by using Dingo's API routing system instead of Laravel's.

By doing this you get the automatic formatting of the JSON API mappings and the versioning and security offered by Dingo.

Features

• Package provides a full implementation of the JSON API specification, and is featured on the official site!
• A JSON API Transformer that will allow you to convert any mapped object into a valid JSON API resource.
• Controller boilerplate to write a fully compiliant JSON API Server using your exisiting Eloquent Models.
• Dingo features such as:
  • Multiple Authentication Adapters
  • API Versioning
  • Rate Limiting
  • Internal Requests
  • API Blueprint Documentation

Installation

Use Composer to install the package:

$ composer require nilportugues/laravel5-json-api-dingo

Now run the following artisan command:

$ php artisan vendor:publish

Configuration

Open up config/app.php and add the following line under providers array:

'providers' => [
    //...
    NilPortugues\Laravel5\JsonApiDingo\Laravel5JsonApiDingoServiceProvider::class,
],

Usage

Defining routes

We will be planning the resources ahead its implementation. All routes require to have a name.

This is how our app/Http/routes.php will look:

<?php
$api = app('Dingo\Api\Routing\Router');

$api->version('v1', function ($api) {
    $api->resource('employees', 'EmployeesController');    
    
    $api->get('employees/{employee_id}/orders', [ 
        'as' => 'employees.orders',
        'uses' => 'EmployeesController@getOrdersByEmployee'
    ]);
});

//...

Definition

First, let's define the Models for Employees and Orders using Eloquent.

Employees (Eloquent Model)

<?php namespace App\Model\Database;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Validation\ValidatesRequests;

class Employees extends Model
{
    public $timestamps = false;
    protected $table = 'employees';    
    protected $primaryKey = 'id';
    protected $appends = ['full_name'];

    /**
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasOne
     */
    public function latestOrders()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Orders::class, 'employee_id')->limit(10);
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getFullNameAttribute()
    {
        return $this->first_name.' '.$this->last_name;
    }
}

Employees SQL

CREATE TABLE `employees` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `company` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `last_name` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `first_name` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `email_address` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `job_title` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `business_phone` varchar(25) DEFAULT NULL,
  `home_phone` varchar(25) DEFAULT NULL,
  `mobile_phone` varchar(25) DEFAULT NULL,
  `fax_number` varchar(25) DEFAULT NULL,
  `address` longtext,
  `city` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `state_province` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `zip_postal_code` varchar(15) DEFAULT NULL,
  `country_region` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `web_page` longtext,
  `notes` longtext,
  `attachments` longblob,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
  KEY `city` (`city`),
  KEY `company` (`company`),
  KEY `first_name` (`first_name`),
  KEY `last_name` (`last_name`),
  KEY `zip_postal_code` (`zip_postal_code`),
  KEY `state_province` (`state_province`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=10 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
INSERT INTO `employees` (`id`, `company`, `last_name`, `first_name`, `email_address`, `job_title`, `business_phone`, `home_phone`, `mobile_phone`, `fax_number`, `address`, `city`, `state_province`, `zip_postal_code`, `country_region`, `web_page`, `notes`, `attachments`)
VALUES
    (10, 'Acme Industries', 'Smith', 'Mike', 'mike.smith@mail.com', 'Horticultarlist', '0118 9843212', NULL, NULL, NULL, '343 Friary Road', 'Manchester', 'Lancs.', 'M3 3DL', 'United Kingdom', NULL, NULL, NULL);

Orders (Eloquent Model)

<?php namespace App\Model\Database;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Orders extends Model
{   
    public $timestamps = false;
    protected $table = 'orders';
    protected $primaryKey = 'id';

    /**
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasOne
     */
    public function employee()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Employees::class, 'employee_id');
    }
}

Orders SQL

CREATE TABLE `orders` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `employee_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
  `customer_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
  `order_date` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
  `shipped_date` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
  `shipper_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
  `ship_name` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `ship_address` longtext,
  `ship_city` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `ship_state_province` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `ship_zip_postal_code` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `ship_country_region` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `shipping_fee` decimal(19,4) DEFAULT '0.0000',
  `taxes` decimal(19,4) DEFAULT '0.0000',
  `payment_type` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
  `paid_date` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
  `notes` longtext,
  `tax_rate` double DEFAULT '0',
  `tax_status_id` tinyint(4) DEFAULT NULL,
  `status_id` tinyint(4) DEFAULT '0',
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
  KEY `customer_id` (`customer_id`),
  KEY `employee_id` (`employee_id`),
  KEY `id` (`id`),
  KEY `shipper_id` (`shipper_id`),
  KEY `tax_status` (`tax_status_id`),
  KEY `ship_zip_postal_code` (`ship_zip_postal_code`),
  KEY `fk_orders_orders_status1` (`status_id`),  
  CONSTRAINT `fk_orders_employees1` FOREIGN KEY (`employee_id`) REFERENCES `employees` (`id`) ON DELETE NO ACTION ON UPDATE NO ACTION
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=82 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
INSERT INTO `orders` (`id`, `employee_id`, `customer_id`, `order_date`, `shipped_date`, `shipper_id`, `ship_name`, `ship_address`, `ship_city`, `ship_state_province`, `ship_zip_postal_code`, `ship_country_region`, `shipping_fee`, `taxes`, `payment_type`, `paid_date`, `notes`, `tax_rate`, `tax_status_id`, `status_id`)
VALUES
    (82, 10, NULL, '2015-03-12 00:00:00', '2015-03-12 00:00:00', NULL, NULL, '43, Borrowed Drive', 'New Oreleans', 'Louisiana', '4322', 'USA', 1.4000, 0.0000, NULL, NULL, NULL, 0, NULL, 0);

Follow up, we'll be creating Transformers. One Transformer is required for each class and it must implement the \NilPortugues\Api\Mappings\JsonApiMapping interface.

We will be placing these files at app/Model/Api:

EmployeesTransformer

<?php namespace App\Model\Api;

use App\Model\Database\Employees;
use NilPortugues\Api\Mappings\JsonApiMapping;

class EmployeesTransformer implements JsonApiMapping
{
    /**
     * Returns a string with the full class name, including namespace.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getClass()
    {
        return Employees::class;
    }

    /**
     * Returns a string representing the resource name 
     * as it will be shown after the mapping.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getAlias()
    {
        return 'employee';
    }

    /**
     * Returns an array of properties that will be renamed.
     * Key is current property from the class. 
     * Value is the property's alias name.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function getAliasedProperties()
    {
        return [
            'last_name' => 'surname',
            
        ];
    }

    /**
     * List of properties in the class that will be  ignored by the mapping.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function getHideProperties()
    {
        return [
            'attachments'
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Returns an array of properties that are used as an ID value.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function getIdProperties()
    {
        return ['id'];
    }

    /**
     * Returns a list of URLs. This urls must have placeholders 
     * to be replaced with the getIdProperties() values.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function getUrls()
    {
        return [
            'self' => ['name' => 'employees.show', 'as_id' => 'id'],
            'employees' => ['name' => 'employees.index'],
            'employee_orders' => ['name' => 'employees.orders', 'as_id' => 'id']
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Returns an array containing the relationship mappings as an array.
     * Key for each relationship defined must match a property of the mapped class.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function getRelationships()
    {
        return [];
    }
       
    /**
     * Returns an array of properties that are mandatory to be passed in when doing create or update.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function getRequiredProperties() {
        return [];
    }
} 

Same goes for Orders, these files will also be placed at app/Model/Api:

OrdersTransformer

<?php namespace App\Model\Api;

use App\Model\Database\Orders;
use NilPortugues\Api\Mappings\JsonApiMapping;

class OrdersTransformer implements JsonApiMapping
{
    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function getClass()
    {
        return Orders::class;
    }
    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function getAlias()
    {
        return 'order';
    }
    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function getAliasedProperties()
    {
        return [];
    }
    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function getHideProperties()
    {
        return [];
    }
    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function getIdProperties()
    {
        return ['id'];
    }
    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function getUrls()
    {
        return [
            'self'     => ['name' => 'orders.show', 'as_id' => 'id'],
            'employee' => ['name' => 'employees.show', 'as_id' => 'employee_id'],
        ];
    }
    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    public function getRelationships()
    {
        return [];
    }
    
    /**
     * Returns an array of properties that are mandatory to be passed in when doing create or update.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function getRequiredProperties() {
        return [];
    }
} 

Usage

Open config/jsonapi.php. This file should return an array returning all the class mappings.

<?php
use App\Model\Api\EmployeesTransformer;
use App\Model\Api\OrdersTransformer;

return [
    EmployeesTransformer::class,
    OrdersTransformer::class,
];

JsonApiController

Whether it's Laravel 5 or Lumen, usage is exactly the same.

Let's create a new controller that extends the JsonApiController provided by this package, as follows:

Lumen users must extends from LumenJsonApiController not JsonApiController.

<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Model\Database\Employees;
use NilPortugues\Laravel5\JsonApi\Controller\JsonApiController;

class EmployeesController extends JsonApiController
{
    /**
     * Return the Eloquent model that will be used 
     * to model the JSON API resources. 
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model
     */
    public function getDataModel()
    {
        return new Employees();
    }
}

In case you need to overwrite any default behaviour, the JsonApiController methods are:

//Constructor and defined actions
public function __construct(JsonApiSerializer $serializer);
public function listAction();
public function getAction(Request $request);
public function postAction(Request $request);
public function patchAction(Request $request);
public function putAction(Request $request);
public function deleteAction(Request $request);

//Methods returning callables that access the persistence layer
protected function totalAmountResourceCallable();
protected function listResourceCallable();
protected function findResourceCallable(Request $request);
protected function createResourceCallable();
protected function updateResourceCallable();

//Allows modification of the response object
protected function addHeaders(Response $response);

But wait! We're missing out one action, EmployeesController@getOrdersByEmployee.

As the name suggests, it should list orders, so the behaviour should be the same as the one of ListAction.

If you look inside the listActionyou'll find a code similar to the one below, but we just ajusted the behaviour and used it in our controller to support an additional action:

<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Model\Database\Employees;
use App\Model\Database\Orders;
use NilPortugues\Laravel5\JsonApi\Controller\JsonApiController;

class EmployeesController extends JsonApiController
{
    /**
     * Return the Eloquent model that will be used 
     * to model the JSON API resources. 
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model
     */
    public function getDataModel()
    {
        return new Employees();
    }    
    
    /**
     * @param Request $request
     *
     * @return \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response
     */
    public function getOrdersByEmployee(Request $request)
    {       
        $apiRequest = RequestFactory::create();
        $page = $apiRequest->getPage();

        if (!$page->size()) {
            $page->setSize(10); //Default elements per page
        }

        $resource = new ListResource(
            $this->serializer,
            $page,
            $apiRequest->getFields(),
            $apiRequest->getSort(),
            $apiRequest->getIncludedRelationships(),
            $apiRequest->getFilters()
        );
        
        $totalAmount = function() use ($request) {
            $id = (new Orders())->getKeyName();
            return Orders::query()
                ->where('employee_id', '=', $request->employee_id)
                ->get([$id])
                ->count();
        };

        $results = function()  use ($request) {
            return EloquentHelper::paginate(
                $this->serializer,
                Orders::query()
                    ->where('employee_id', '=', $request->employee_id)
            )->get();
        };

        $uri = route('employees.orders', ['employee_id' => $request->employee_id]);
        
        return $resource->get($totalAmount, $results, $uri, Orders::class);
    }
}

And you're ready to go. Yes, it is THAT simple!

Examples: Consuming the API

GET

This is the output for EmployeesController@getAction being consumed from command-line method issuing: curl -X GET "http://localhost:9000/employees/1".

Output:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Cache-Control: private, max-age=0, must-revalidate
Content-type: application/vnd.api+json

{
    "data": {
        "type": "employee",
        "id": "1",
        "attributes": {
            "company": "Northwind Traders",
            "surname": "Freehafer",
            "first_name": "Nancy",
            "email_address": "nancy@northwindtraders.com",
            "job_title": "Sales Representative",
            "business_phone": "(123)555-0100",
            "home_phone": "(123)555-0102",
            "mobile_phone": null,
            "fax_number": "(123)555-0103",
            "address": "123 1st Avenue",
            "city": "Seattle",
            "state_province": "WA",
            "zip_postal_code": "99999",
            "country_region": "USA",
            "web_page": "http://northwindtraders.com",
            "notes": null,
            "full_name": "Nancy Freehafer"
        },
        "links": {
            "self": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/1"
            },
            "employee_orders": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/1/orders"
            }
        },
        "relationships": {
            "latest_orders": [
                {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "order",
                        "id": "71"
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    },
    "included": [        
        {
            "type": "order",
            "id": "71",
            "attributes": {
                "employee_id": "1",
                "customer_id": "1",
                "order_date": "2006-05-24 00:00:00",
                "shipped_date": null,
                "shipper_id": "3",
                "ship_name": "Anna Bedecs",
                "ship_address": "123 1st Street",
                "ship_city": "Seattle",
                "ship_state_province": "WA",
                "ship_zip_postal_code": "99999",
                "ship_country_region": "USA",
                "shipping_fee": "0.0000",
                "taxes": "0.0000",
                "payment_type": null,
                "paid_date": null,
                "notes": null,
                "tax_rate": "0",
                "tax_status_id": null,
                "status_id": "0"
            },
            "links": {
                "self": {
                    "href": "http://localhost:9000/orders/71"
                },
                "employee": {
                    "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/1"
                }
            }
        }
    ],
    "links": {
        "employees": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees"
        },
        "employee_orders": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/1/orders"
        }
    },
    "jsonapi": {
        "version": "1.0"
    }
}

POST

POST requires all member attributes to be accepted, even those hidden by the mapper.

For instance, attachments member was hidden, but it is required, so it needs to be passed in with a valid value. On the other hand, full_name member value must not be passed in as an attribute or resource creation will fail.

Passing and id is optional and will be used instead of a server-side generated value if provided.

Sending the following data to the server using POSTto the following URI http://localhost:9000/employees:

{
    "data": {
        "type": "employee",
        "attributes": {
            "company": "NilPortugues.com",
            "surname": "Portugués",
            "first_name": "Nil",
            "email_address": "nilportugues@example.com",
            "job_title": "Web Developer",
            "business_phone": "(123)555-0100",
            "home_phone": "(123)555-0102",
            "mobile_phone": null,
            "fax_number": "(123)555-0103",
            "address": "Plaça Catalunya 1",
            "city": "Barcelona",
            "state_province": "Barcelona",
            "zip_postal_code": "08028",
            "country_region": "Spain",
            "web_page": "http://nilportugues.com",
            "notes": null,
            "attachments": null
        }
    }        
}        

Will produce:

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Cache-Control: private, max-age=0, must-revalidate
Content-type: application/vnd.api+json
Location: http://localhost:9000/employees/10

Notice how 201 HTTP Status Code is returned and Location header too. Also attachments is not there anymore, and full_name was displayed.

{
    "data": {
        "type": "employee",
        "id": "10",
        "attributes": {
            "company": "NilPortugues.com",
            "surname": "Portugués",
            "first_name": "Nil",
            "email_address": "nilportugues@example.com",
            "job_title": "Web Developer",
            "business_phone": "(123)555-0100",
            "home_phone": "(123)555-0102",
            "mobile_phone": null,
            "fax_number": "(123)555-0103",
            "address": "Plaça Catalunya 1",
            "city": "Barcelona",
            "state_province": "Barcelona",
            "zip_postal_code": "08028",
            "country_region": "Spain",
            "web_page": "http://nilportugues.com",
            "notes": null,
            "full_name": "Nil Portugués"
        },
        "links": {
            "self": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10"
            },
            "employee_orders": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10/orders"
            }
        }
    },
    "links": {
        "employees": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees"
        },
        "employee_orders": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10/orders"
        }
    },
    "jsonapi": {
        "version": "1.0"
    }
}

PUT

PUT requires all member attributes to be accepted, just like POST.

For the sake of this example, we'll just send in a new job_title value, and keep everything else exactly the same.

It's important to notice this time we are required to pass in the id, even if it has been passed in by the URI, and of course the id values must match. Otherwise it will fail.

Sending the following data to the server using PUTto the following URI http://localhost:9000/employees/10:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "employee",
    "id": 10,
    "attributes": {
      "company": "NilPortugues.com",
      "surname": "Portugués",
      "first_name": "Nil",
      "email_address": "nilportugues@example.com",
      "job_title": "Full Stack Web Developer",
      "business_phone": "(123)555-0100",
      "home_phone": "(123)555-0102",
      "mobile_phone": null,
      "fax_number": "(123)555-0103",
      "address": "Plaça Catalunya 1",
      "city": "Barcelona",
      "state_province": "Barcelona",
      "zip_postal_code": "08028",
      "country_region": "Spain",
      "web_page": "http://nilportugues.com",
      "notes": null,
      "attachments": null
    }
  }
}

Will produce:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Cache-Control: private, max-age=0, must-revalidate
Content-type: application/vnd.api+json

{
    "data": {
        "type": "employee",
        "id": "10",
        "attributes": {
            "company": "NilPortugues.com",
            "surname": "Portugués",
            "first_name": "Nil",
            "email_address": "contact@nilportugues.com",
            "job_title": "Full Stack Web Developer",
            "business_phone": "(123)555-0100",
            "home_phone": "(123)555-0102",
            "mobile_phone": null,
            "fax_number": "(123)555-0103",
            "address": "Plaça Catalunya 1",
            "city": "Barcelona",
            "state_province": "Barcelona",
            "zip_postal_code": "08028",
            "country_region": "Spain",
            "web_page": "http://nilportugues.com",
            "notes": null,
            "full_name": "Nil Portugués"
        },
        "links": {
            "self": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10"
            },
            "employee_orders": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10/orders"
            }
        }
    },
    "included": [],
    "links": {
        "employees": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees"
        },
        "employee_orders": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10/orders"
        }
    },
    "jsonapi": {
        "version": "1.0"
    }
}

PATCH

PATCH allows partial updates, unlike PUT.

We are required to pass in the id member, even if it has been passed in by the URI, and of course the id values must match. Otherwise it will fail.

For instance, sending the following data to the server using the following URI http://localhost:9000/employees/10:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "employee",
    "id": 10,
    "attributes": {
      "email_address": "contact@nilportugues.com"
    }
  }
}

Will produce:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Cache-Control: private, max-age=0, must-revalidate
Content-type: application/vnd.api+json

{
    "data": {
        "type": "employee",
        "id": "10",
        "attributes": {
            "company": "NilPortugues.com",
            "surname": "Portugués",
            "first_name": "Nil",
            "email_address": "contact@nilportugues.com",
            "job_title": "Full Stack Web Developer",
            "business_phone": "(123)555-0100",
            "home_phone": "(123)555-0102",
            "mobile_phone": null,
            "fax_number": "(123)555-0103",
            "address": "Plaça Catalunya 1",
            "city": "Barcelona",
            "state_province": "Barcelona",
            "zip_postal_code": "08028",
            "country_region": "Spain",
            "web_page": "http://nilportugues.com",
            "notes": null,
            "full_name": "Nil Portugués"
        },
        "links": {
            "self": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10"
            },
            "employee_orders": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10/orders"
            }
        }
    },
    "included": [],
    "links": {
        "employees": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees"
        },
        "employee_orders": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10/orders"
        }
    },
    "jsonapi": {
        "version": "1.0"
    }
}

DELETE

DELETE is the easiest method to use, as it does not require body. Just issue a DELETE to http://localhost:9000/employees/10/ and Employee with id 10 will be gone.

It will produce the following output:

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Cache-Control: private, max-age=0, must-revalidate
Content-type: application/vnd.api+json

And notice how response will be empty:

GET Query Params: include, fields, sort and page

According to the standard, for GET method, it is possible to:

• Show only those fields requested using fieldsquery parameter.
  • &fields[resource]=field1,field2

For instance, passing /employees/10?fields[employee]=company,first_name will produce the following output:

{
    "data": {
        "type": "employee",
        "id": "10",
        "attributes": {
            "company": "NilPortugues.com",
            "first_name": "Nil"
        },
        "links": {
            "self": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10"
            },
            "employee_orders": {
                "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10/orders"
            }
        }
    },
    "links": {
        "employees": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees"
        },
        "employee_orders": {
            "href": "http://localhost:9000/employees/10/orders"
        }
    },
    "jsonapi": {
        "version": "1.0"
    }
}

• Show only those include resources by passing in the relationship between them separated by dot, or just pass in list of resources separated by comma.
  • &include=resource1
  • &include=resource1.resource2,resource2.resource3

For instance, /employees?include=order will only load order type data inside include member, but /employees?include=order.employee will only load those orders related to the employee type.

• Sort results using sort and passing in the member names of the main resource defined in data[type] member. If it starts with a - order is DESCENDING, otherwise it's ASCENDING.

  • &sort=field1,-field2
  • &sort=-field1,field2

For instance: /employees?sort=surname,-first_name

• Pagination is also defined to allow doing page pagination, cursor pagination or offset pagination.
  • &page[number]
  • &page[limit]
  • &page[cursor]
  • &page[offset]
  • &page[size]

For instance: /employees?page[number]=1&page[size]=10

POST/PUT/PATCH with Relationships

The JSON API allows resource creation and modification and passing in relationships that will create or alter existing resources too.

Let's say we want to create a new Employee and pass in its first Ordertoo.

This could be done issuing 2 POST to the end-points (one for Employee, one for Order) or pass in the first Order as a relationship with our Employee, for instance:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "employee",
    "attributes": {
        "company": "Northwind Traders",
        "surname": "Giussani",
        "first_name": "Laura",
        "email_address": "laura@northwindtraders.com",
        "job_title": "Sales Coordinator",
        "business_phone": "(123)555-0100",
        "home_phone": "(123)555-0102",
        "mobile_phone": null,
        "fax_number": "(123)555-0103",
        "address": "123 8th Avenue",
        "city": "Redmond",
        "state_province": "WA",
        "zip_postal_code": "99999",
        "country_region": "USA",
        "web_page": "http://northwindtraders.com",
        "notes": "Reads and writes French.",
        "full_name": "Laura Giussani"
    },    
    "relationships": {
      "order": {
        "data": [
          {
            "type": "order",
            "attributes": {
              "customer_id": "28",
              "order_date": "2006-05-11 00:00:00",
              "shipped_date": "2006-05-11 00:00:00",
              "shipper_id": "3",
              "ship_name": "Amritansh Raghav",
              "ship_address": "789 28th Street",
              "ship_city": "Memphis",
              "ship_state_province": "TN",
              "ship_zip_postal_code": "99999",
              "ship_country_region": "USA",
              "shipping_fee": "10.0000",
              "taxes": "0.0000",
              "payment_type": "Check",
              "paid_date": "2006-05-11 00:00:00",
              "notes": null,
              "tax_rate": "0",
              "tax_status_id": null,
              "status_id": "0"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }    
  }
}       

Due to the existance of this use case, we'll have to ajust our Controller implementation overwriting some methods provided by the JsonApiController: createResourceCallable, updateResourceCallable and patchResourceCallable.

Here's how it would be done for createResourceCallable.

<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Model\Database\Employees;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
use NilPortugues\Api\JsonApi\Server\Errors\Error;
use NilPortugues\Api\JsonApi\Server\Errors\ErrorBag;
use NilPortugues\Laravel5\JsonApi\Controller\JsonApiController;

class EmployeesController extends JsonApiController
{
    /**
     * Now you can actually create Employee and Orders at once.
     * Use transactions - DB::beginTransaction() for data integrity!
     *
     * @return callable
     */
    protected function createResourceCallable()
    {
        $createOrderResource = function (Model $model, array $data) {
            if (!empty($data['relationships']['order']['data'])) {
                $orderData = $data['relationships']['order']['data'];

                if (!empty($orderData['type'])) {
                    $orderData = [$orderData];
                }

                foreach ($orderData as $order) {
                    $attributes = array_merge($order['attributes'], ['employee_id' => $model->getKey()]);
                    Orders::create($attributes);
                }
            }
        };

        return function (array $data, array $values, ErrorBag $errorBag) use ($createOrderResource) {

            $attributes = [];
            foreach ($values as $name => $value) {
                $attributes[$name] = $value;
            }

            if (!empty($data['id'])) {
                $attributes[$this->getDataModel()->getKeyName()] = $values['id'];
            }

            DB::beginTransaction();
            try {
                $model = $this->getDataModel()->create($attributes);
                $createOrderResource($model, $data);
                DB::commit();
                return $model;
                
            } catch(\Exception $e) {
                DB::rollback();
                $errorBag[] = new Error('creation_error', 'Resource could not be created');
                throw $e;
            }
        };
    }

}

It is important, in order to use Transactions, do define in Eloquent models the $fillable values.

Here's how Employees and Orders look like with $fillable defined.

Employees (Eloquent Model) with $fillable

<?php namespace App\Model\Database;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Validation\ValidatesRequests;

class Employees extends Model
{
    public $timestamps = false;
    protected $table = 'employees';    
    protected $primaryKey = 'id';
    protected $appends = ['full_name'];
    
    /**
     * @var array
     */
    protected $fillable = [
        'company',
        'last_name',
        'first_name',
        'email_address',
        'job_title',
        'business_phone',
        'home_phone',
        'mobile_phone',
        'fax_number',
        'address',
        'city',
        'state_province',
        'zip_postal_code',
        'country_region',
        'web_page',
        'notes',
        'attachments',
    ];

    /**
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasOne
     */
    public function latestOrders()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Orders::class, 'employee_id')->limit(10);
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getFullNameAttribute()
    {
        return $this->first_name.' '.$this->last_name;
    }
}

Orders (Eloquent Model) with $fillable

<?php namespace App\Model\Database;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Orders extends Model
{   
    public $timestamps = false;
    protected $table = 'orders';
    protected $primaryKey = 'id';
    
    /**
     * @var array
     */
    protected $fillable = [
        'employee_id',
        'customer_id',
        'order_date',
        'shipped_date',
        'shipper_id',
        'ship_name',
        'ship_address',
        'ship_city',
        'ship_state_province',
        'ship_zip_postal_code',
        'ship_country_region',
        'shipping_fee',
        'taxes',
        'payment_type',
        'paid_date',
        'notes',
        'tax_rate',
        'tax_status_id',
        'status_id',
    ];
    
    /**
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasOne
     */
    public function employee()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Employees::class, 'employee_id');
    }
}

Custom Response Headers

Adding custom response headers can be done for multiple reasons: versioning, setting expire headers, caching, setting private or public the served content...

In order to do this, it's as simple as overwriting the JsonApiController addHeaders method. For instance, let's use the EmployeeController as an example:

<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Model\Database\Employees;
use NilPortugues\Laravel5\JsonApi\Controller\JsonApiController;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

class EmployeesController extends JsonApiController
{
    //All your supported methods...
    
    /**
     * @param Response $response
     *
     * @return \Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response
     */
    protected function addHeaders(Response $response) {
        $response->headers->set('X-API-Version', '1.0');
        $response->setPublic();
        $response->setMaxAge(60);
        $response->setSharedMaxAge(60);

        return $response;
    }
}    

Now all supported actions will include the added custom headers.

Common Errors and Solutions

"Undefined index: @type"

This usually happens because you did not write the namespace of your Mapping in config/jsonapi.php. Double check, if missing, add it and refresh the resource. It should be gone!

Contribute

Contributions to the package are always welcome!

• Report any bugs or issues you find on the issue tracker.
• You can grab the source code at the package's Git repository.

Support

Get in touch with me using one of the following means:

• Emailing me at contact@nilportugues.com
• Opening an Issue

Authors

• Nil Portugués Calderó
• The Community Contributors

License

The code base is licensed under the MIT license.