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Now that we’ve set up our Laravel application and created factories that generate our test data, we’re ready to explore the differences between Controllers and Resource Controllers. See you there!
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[MUSIC]
0:00
Welcome back.
0:04
Now that we've set up our
Laravel application and
0:05
created factories that generate our
test data we're ready to explore
0:08
the differences between controllers and
resource controllers.
0:13
The main difference between these two
controllers is that resource controllers
0:18
include all of the CRUD
goodies pre-built for
0:23
us making this development task
a snap in the context of a REST API.
0:26
The key word is resource, and
we'll use CRUD operations on our
0:33
API resources, such as authors and
books in order to read,
0:38
add, modify or
delete our list of books and authors.
0:43
CRUD is short for Create,
Read, Update, and Delete.
0:49
Which corresponds to HTML
verbs such as GET, POST,
0:53
PUT/PATCH, and DELETE,
which we can use to create a REST API.
0:58
For example, we can create an author,
read an author,
1:05
update and delete an author,
which also applies to books.
1:09
Each HTML verb such as GET,
POST, PUT/PATCH, and
1:14
DELETE gets a designated URI,
an action and a route name.
1:19
To learn more about CRUD in HTML verbs,
check out the teachers notes below.
1:26
So what exactly is the difference
between REST and CRUD?
1:32
REST uses HTTP verbs such as GET,
POST, PUT/PATCH,
1:38
and DELETE to perform basic
operations such as creating,
1:43
reading, updating, and
deleting or CRUD for short.
1:48
While a REST client or user interacts
with a REST server using HTTP verbs,
1:53
the server understands this and
carries out the requested CRUD operation.
2:00
For example, like watching a Treehouse
course, creating a blog post,
2:06
updating a typo, appending your wish list,
or deleting an email.
2:11
The critical distinction to remember
is that REST is an API architecture.
2:16
And CRUD is a set of operations
that interact with our resources,
2:22
such as authors and books.
2:27
To illustrate how to create controllers
with CRUD operations, we'll create
2:30
a regular controller by hand, which
does not contain any CRUD boilerplate.
2:35
Then we'll create another controller,
but this time we'll use Laravel's
2:41
time saving resource controller with
all of our CRUD operations built in.
2:46
Let's get started.
2:51
First let's exit the Tinker
shell by typing exit.
2:53
Next let's build a regular controller so
3:01
we can compare it to a resource
controller with this artisan command.
3:04
Next, let's navigate to our controllers
in the app/http/controllersdirectory and
3:16
open the RegularController.php file.
3:23
You'll notice that it's mostly empty.
3:28
That is to say, you would have
to build each function yourself.
3:30
Fair enough, but the ResourceController
builds each CRUD function for
3:34
us, which makes building APIs much easier.
3:40
Next, let's build a resource
controller like this.
3:44
Keep in mind that we will remove
the edit and create functions
3:59
later in the course since our
API has no UI or user interface.
4:04
To learn more about REST, APIs and CRUD,
check out the teacher's notes below.
4:09
Next, open the ResourceController and
4:15
let's see what the CRUD
boilerplate is all about.
4:17
Let's start with C for create.
4:21
Notice that Request is already
imported for us, at the top.
4:24
In this case,
the c matches both crud and create, so
4:29
the function is pretty straight forward.
4:33
It's also worth noting that APIs without
a UI will use the store function and
4:38
the comments offer us a clue.
4:43
The create function uses a form and
store does not.
4:46
No need to worry if you don't
understand this concept right away.
4:51
It will make more sense as you
progress through the course.
4:54
Next, we have read and
there are two main types of read.
4:58
Read all authors or
books in the @index function or
5:03
read one specific author or
book in the @show function.
5:08
Next we have update and delete,
which are both straightforward as well.
5:14
Now that we've compared
the two kinds of controllers,
5:21
let's delete the RegularController and
5:25
the ResourceController before
we move on to the next section.
5:27
See you there.
5:31
Great job.
5:32
We created a controller and
a resource controller to compare
5:34
the types of controllers,
one that is fairly empty, and
5:39
the latter with all of the CRUD
functionality we need to build our API.
5:43
Next we're going to build our author and
5:49
book resource controllers with all the
basic CRUD boilerplate pre-built for us.
5:51
See you there.
5:57
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