**Course Title:** Mastering Laravel Framework: Building Scalable Modern Web Applications **Section Title:** RESTful API Development with Laravel **Topic:** Develop a RESTful API for a task management system with authentication and API versioning.(Lab topic) **Overview** In this lab, we will build a RESTful API for a task management system using Laravel. Our API will provide endpoints for creating, reading, updating, and deleting (CRUD) tasks. We will also implement authentication using API tokens and versioning to ensure smooth transitions across different versions of our API. **Task Management System Requirements** Before we begin, let's define the requirements of our task management system. Our system should allow users to: * Create tasks with a title, description, and deadline * View all tasks * Update task details * Delete tasks * Filter tasks by due date or completion status **Step 1: Setting up the Project** Create a new Laravel project using the following command: ```bash composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel task-management-system ``` Navigate into the project directory and install the required dependencies: ```bash cd task-management-system ``` **Step 2: Creating the Task Model and Migration** Create a new model for tasks in the `app/Models` directory: ```bash php artisan make:model Task -m ``` In the `app/Models/Task.php` file, define the task attributes: ```php namespace App\Models; use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory; use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model; class Task extends Model { use HasFactory; protected $fillable = [ 'title', 'description', 'deadline', 'completed', ]; } ``` Create a new migration for tasks in the `database/migrations` directory: ```php php artisan make:migration create_tasks_table ``` In the `database/migrations/xxx_create_tasks_table.php` file, define the task table schema: ```php use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration; use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint; use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema; class CreateTasksTable extends Migration { public function up() { Schema::create('tasks', function (Blueprint $table) { $table->id(); $table->string('title'); $table->text('description'); $table->date('deadline'); $table->boolean('completed')->default(false); $table->timestamps(); }); } public function down() { Schema::dropIfExists('tasks'); } } ``` Run the migration to create the tasks table: ```bash php artisan migrate ``` **Step 3: Implementing API Authentication** We will use the Laravel Passport package for API authentication. Install Passport using the following command: ```bash composer require laravel/passport ``` Publish the Passport migration and configuration files: ```bash php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Passport\PassportServiceProvider" ``` Run the migration to create the passport tables: ```bash php artisan migrate ``` **Step 4: Creating the Task Controller and API Endpoints** Create a new controller for tasks in the `app/Http/Controllers/Api` directory: ```bash php artisan make:controller Api/TaskController ``` In the `app/Http/Controllers/Api/TaskController.php` file, define the API endpoints for tasks: ```php namespace App\Http\Controllers\Api; use App\Models\Task; use Illuminate\Http\Request; class TaskController extends Controller { public function index() { return Task::all(); } public function store(Request $request) { $task = Task::create($request->all()); return response()->json($task, 201); } public function show(Task $task) { return $task; } public function update(Request $request, Task $task) { $task->update($request->all()); return response()->json($task); } public function destroy(Task $task) { $task->delete(); return response()->json(null, 204); } } ``` **Step 5: Defining API Routes** Define the API routes for tasks in the `routes/api.php` file: ```php use Illuminate\Http\Request; use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route; use App\Http\Controllers\Api\TaskController; Route::middleware('auth:api')->group(function () { Route::get('/tasks', [TaskController::class, 'index']); Route::post('/tasks', [TaskController::class, 'store']); Route::get('/tasks/{task}', [TaskController::class, 'show']); Route::patch('/tasks/{task}', [TaskController::class, 'update']); Route::delete('/tasks/{task}', [TaskController::class, 'destroy']); }); ``` **Step 6: Implementing API Versioning** We will use the `Accept` header to version our API. Define a new middleware for API versioning in the `app/Http/Middleware` directory: ```bash php artisan make:middleware VersioningMiddleware ``` In the `app/Http/Middleware/VersioningMiddleware.php` file, define the middleware logic: ```php namespace App\Http\Middleware; use Closure; use Illuminate\Http\Request; class VersioningMiddleware { public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next) { $version = $request->header('Accept-Version'); if (!$version || $version !== 'v1') { return response()->json(['error' => 'Invalid API version'], 400); } return $next($request); } } ``` Apply the middleware to the API routes in the `routes/api.php` file: ```php use Illuminate\Http\Request; use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route; use App\Http\Controllers\Api\TaskController; use App\Http\Middleware.VersioningMiddleware; Route::middleware(['auth:api', VersioningMiddleware::class])->group(function () { // ... }); ``` **Conclusion** In this lab, we built a RESTful API for a task management system with authentication and API versioning using Laravel. Our API provides endpoints for CRUD operations on tasks and uses the `Accept` header for versioning. We implemented API authentication using the Laravel Passport package. [Leave a comment below if you have any questions or need help with any part of this lab](#). References: * [Laravel Documentation: API Authentication](https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/api-authentication) * [Laravel Documentation: Passport](https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/passport) * [Laravel Documentation: API Versioning](https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/api-versioning)