Laravel API Response is an amazing package that helps to provide and render consistent HTTP JSON responses to API calls as well as convert and format exceptions to JSON responses.

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require kennedy-osaze/laravel-api-response

You can publish the translation files using:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="api-response-translations"

Optionally, you can publish the config file using:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="api-response-config"

Usage

Using Package Traits

This package provides two traits that can be imported into your projects; namely:

• The \KennedyOsaze\LaravelApiResponse\Concerns\RendersApiResponse trait which can be imported into your (base) controller class, middleware class, or even your exception handler class
• The \KennedyOsaze\LaravelApiResponse\Concerns\ConvertsExceptionToApiResponse trait which should only be imported into your exception handler class.

So we can have on the base controller class (from which all other controllers may extend from):

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\Access\AuthorizesRequests;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Bus\DispatchesJobs;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Validation\ValidatesRequests;
use Illuminate\Routing\Controller as BaseController;
use KennedyOsaze\LaravelApiResponse\Concerns\RendersApiResponse;

class Controller extends BaseController
{
    use AuthorizesRequests, DispatchesJobs, ValidatesRequests, RendersApiResponse;
}

Or some random controller class:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use KennedyOsaze\LaravelApiResponse\Concerns\RendersApiResponse;

class RandomController extends Controller
{
    use RendersApiResponse;
}

In any case, you have access to a load of methods which you can call to render your data. This includes:

// Successful Responses
return $this->okResponse('This is a random message', $data = null, $headers = []);
return $this->createdResponse('This is a random message', $data = null, $headers = []);
return $this->acceptedResponse($message, $data, $headers);
return $this->noContentResponse();
return $this->successResponse($message, $data = null, $status = 200, $headers = []);

// Successful Responses for \Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource
return $this->resourceResponse($jsonResource, $message, $status = 200, $headers = []);
return $this->resourceCollectionResponse($resourceCollection, $message, $wrap = true, $status = 200, $headers = []);

// Error Responses
return $this->unauthenticatedResponse('Unauthenticated message');
return $this->badRequestResponse('Bad request error message', $error = null);
return $this->forbiddenResponse($message);
return $this->notFoundResponse($message);
return $this->clientErrorResponse($message, $status = 400, $error = null, $headers = []);
return $this->serverErrorResponse($message);
return $this->validationFailedResponse($validator, $request = null, $message = null);

$messages = ['name' => 'Name is not valid'];
$this->throwValidationExceptionWhen($condition, $messages);

Also to handle exceptions, converting them to API response by using the \KennedyOsaze\LaravelApiResponse\Concerns\ConvertsExceptionToApiResponse trait in your exception handler which provides the renderApiResponse public method and this can be used as follows:

<?php

namespace App\Exceptions;

use App\Traits\HandleApiException;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Exceptions\Handler as ExceptionHandler;
use KennedyOsaze\LaravelApiResponse\Concerns\ConvertsExceptionToApiResponse;
use Throwable;

class Handler extends ExceptionHandler
{
    use ConvertsExceptionToApiResponse;

    public function render($request, Throwable $e)
    {
        return $this->renderApiResponse($e, $request);
    }
}

Response Data

The response data $data to be rendered for successful response can be any of the following type:

• array e.g. [‘name’ => ‘Dummy’]
• standard object e.g. new stdClass
• integer e.g. 1
• boolean e.g. true
• any Model object, the instance of \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model
• any Collection object, the instance of \Illuminate\Support\Collection
• any JsonResource object, the instance of \Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource
• any Jsonable object, the instance of \Illuminate\Contracts\Support\Jsonable
• any JsonSerializable object, the instance of \JsonSerializable
• any Arrayable object, the instance of \Illuminate\Contracts\Support\Arrayable

Any of the above can be used stored as $data and used thus:

use \KennedyOsaze\LaravelApiResponse\ApiResponse;

ApiResponse::create(200, 'A message', $data)

This package has a lot more features and methods with code examples, If you want to learn more, you can visit its complete documentation on Github.

Closing Note

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