JsonApi.org compability package for Laravel 5.5+

This package is intended to provide an easy way to achieve compatibility with the API standards defined at http://jsonapi.org. Currently, only the top-level structure (http://jsonapi.org/format/#document-top-level) is supported, but ongoing work strives for a more complete coverage of the standard.

How to install it

You can install the package via composer. For Laravel 5.5 up to 6.x run:

$ composer require bitnetic/jsonapi "0.1.*"

For Laravel 7 run:

$ composer require bitnetic/jsonapi "^2.0"

JsonApi comes with a config file named config/jsonapi.php. This file is deployed to the central laravel configuration directory using the vendor:publish command:

$ php artisan vendor:publish --provider "Bitnetic\JsonApi\JsonApiServiceProvider"

Next, extend your exception handler with JsonApi standard responses. Note that this example uses the Laravel 7 signature that uses Throwable instead of Exception that was used in Laravel 5 and 6.

/**
 * Render an exception into an HTTP response.
 *
 * @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
 * @param  \Throwable  $exception
 * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
 */
public function render($request, Throwable $exception)
{
    return JsonApiExceptionHandler::render($request, $exception)
        ?? parent::render($request, $exception);
}

How to use it

This JsonApi package is minimal-invasive to Laravel. Just use HTTP resources within your controllers and extend them from JsonApiResource.

This is an example controller method:

/**
 * @return UserResource
 */
public function getUser(Request $request)
{
    return new UserResource($request->user());
}

You can also use collections in a list()-method by calling UserResource::collect($myUsers);.

Put extra data into the response

You can always add your own data into the meta or errors field, or return a different HTTP status code. The package just makes sure that the status code is mapped additionally as a status field within the meta block.

return new UserResource($myUser, ['type' => 'admin'], $exception->errors(), 404);

How to write an appropriate resource

Take a look at the following example:

class UserResource extends JsonApiResource
{
    public function toArray($request)
    {
        return [
            'name' => $this->name,
            'email' => $this->email,
            'password' => $this->when(
                $request->user() ... e.g.,
                MySecureTokenFactory::wrap($this->password),
        ];
    }
}

In a resource like UserResource($user), you can access the underlying user object by using $this.

You can also take a look the included ExampleResource and adopt it to your needs.

The outcome

The formatted Json-Api-Response from the examples above should produce something like this:

{
  "data": {
    "name": "John Doe",
    "email": "[email protected]"
  },
  "meta": {
    "status": 200
    "success": true
  }
}