Laravel Restful Model

Introduction

This package is providing an object mapper for REST HTTP services using Eloquent-like "Models". When using the Restful Model, third-party APIs and REST resources have a "Model" reflection that is used for integration. Restful Model allows you to read, update, delete resources via HTTP request and modify them as easy as Eloquent do it with databases.

Installation

Install package via composer:

composer require egretos/restful-model

Publish rest_connections.php config:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Egretos\RestModel\RestModelServiceProvider"

Configuration

Before you start, you need to define your first connection. All HTTP connections stored in config/rest_connections.php file. Every connection required domain configuration for working.

This is a most simple connection config:

<?php
return [
    // Connection which will be used for models by default
    'default_connection' => env('REST_CONNECTION', 'base_connection'),

    'connections' => [
        'base_connection' => [
            'domain' => env('REST_DOMAIN', 'http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com'),
            'content-type' => 'www-form', // Data format for PUT and POST requests. Available: x-www-form-urlencoded, json
        ],
    ],
];

Model

Model definition

Define your model. Restful Model has a very close structure with Eloquent Model. Here we crete a Post model to handle post HTTP restful resource: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts

use Egretos\RestModel\Model;

class Post extends Model
{

}

Resource name

The model will use the resource posts, which is the name of the model in plural nouns. You can use your own resource name when you need it by using $model->resource:

http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/comments

use Egretos\RestModel\Model;

class Reviews extends Model
{
    protected $resource = 'comments';
}

Restful connections

When your model using not default connection, just add your second connection to configuration and tell it to model:

rest_connections.php:

<?php
return [
    // Connection which will be used for models by default
    'default_connection' => env('REST_CONNECTION', 'base_connection'),

    'connections' => [
        'base_connection' => [
            'domain' => env('REST_DOMAIN', 'http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com'),
            'content-type' => 'www-form', // Data format for PUT and POST requests. Available: www-form, x-www-form-urlencoded, json
        ],
        
        'payment_api' => [
            'domain' => env('PAYMENT_DOMAIN', 'http://paypaypay.pay.pay'),
        ],
    ],
];

Model class for http://paypaypay.pay.pay/payment

use Egretos\RestModel\Model;

class Payment extends Model
{
    public $connection = 'payment_api';
}

HTTP queries

Models used to make http requests and to map data into Model objects. Models are using a build-in HTTP query builder, which allows you to build any query you need.

Here we get all posts from API and print the title of the first post in response. Link is GET http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts.

/** GET http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts */
foreach (Post::all() as $post) {
    echo $post->title; // sunt aut facere repellat...
}

Retrieving single models

In case when you need to get a one model, next methods should help you:

/** GET http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1 */
Post::find(1);

/** GET http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts?title=Lorem */
Post::where('title', 'Lorem')->first();

HTTP query builder

The all method will do a GET request to /posts resource and then map all results into Post objects. In case when we need to modify a request use query builder such like Laravel Eloquent query builder.

use Egretos\RestModel\Request;

    $posts = Post::query()
        ->addHeader('Content-Language', 'en') // Puts new header to request
        ->setMethod(Request::METHOD_OPTIONS) // Set OPTIONS request method
        ->where('title', 'Lorem') // Sets query `title` param to `Lorem`
        ->send(); // Send a request. Here we get a response

Save model

You can use $model->save() method just like in Eloquent. This action will do update() if model is exists and update when model is not.

Create case:

$post = new Post;
$post->title = 'This title will be updated';

/** POST http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts */
$post->save();

Update case:

/** GET http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1 */
$post = Post::find(1);
$post->title = 'This title will be updated';

/** PUT http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1 */
$post->save();

Create and update actions

save() method can be unpredictable or unclear in some cases, so there are create and update() methods.

Create method will send a POST request with model attributes as data

$post = new Post;
$post->title = 'This title will be updated';

/** POST http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts */
$post->create();

Update method will do PUT request to route with id at the end

/** GET http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1 */
$post = Post::find(1);
$post->title = 'This title will be updated';

/** PUT http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1 */
$post->update();

first or find or

Work with model attributes (Mass assignment + JSON)

Last request and last response

deleting models (+ query)

Replicating models

Configuration

Handle HTTP Exceptions