Laravel API Resource Links

Laravel Resource Links is a package by Ruben Van Assche and Spatie that adds links to your Laravel API resources without a hassle.

Here’s one example from the package’s documentation that illustrates a typical UserResource matching a Laravel Resource Controllers:

 1class UserResource extends JsonResource
 2{
 3    use Spatie\ResourceLinks\HasLinks;
 4    use Spatie\ResourceLinks\HasMeta;
 5 
 6    public function toArray($request): array
 7    {
 8        return [
 9            'id' => $this->id,
10            'name' => $this->name,
11            'links' => $this->links(UsersController::class),
12        ];
13    }
14 
15    public static function meta()
16    {
17        return [
18            'links' => self::collectionLinks(UsersController::class),
19        ];
20    }
21}

The above code will generate the following:

 1{
 2   "data":[
 3      {
 4         "id":1,
 5         "name": "Ruben Van Assche",
 6         "links": {
 7            "show": "https://laravel.app/users/1",
 8            "edit": "https://laravel.app/users/1/edit",
 9            "update": "https://laravel.app/users/1",
10            "delete": "https://laravel.app/users/1"
11         }
12      }
13   ],
14   "meta": {
15      "links": {
16         "index": "https://laravel.app/users",
17         "create": "https://laravel.app/users/create",
18         "store":  "https://laravel.app/users"
19      }
20   }
21}

Now your frontend has everything necessary to navigate the API for a given user. Providing collection meta also provides access to links for listing existing users and creating new users.

The laravel-resource-links documentation is an excellent place to start learning more about this package. You can also view the source code on GitHub at spatie/laravel-resource-links.