laravel

Laravel provides routing, form requests, and API resources to structure endpoints. Define routes in web.php or api.php, use form request classes for validation, and return API resources to format responses consistently across your application.

Use service layer and repository patterns to isolate business logic from controllers. Services encapsulate domain rules, repositories abstract data access through Eloquent models, and this separation makes testing and maintenance simpler.

Laravel Sanctum and Passport handle API token authentication. Sanctum suits SPAs and mobile apps with token issuance, while Passport implements OAuth 2.0. Use policies for fine-grained authorization checks on resources.

Eloquent ORM supports hasMany, belongsTo, and many-to-many relationships. Eager load related data with with() to avoid N+1 queries, and define scopes on models to encapsulate reusable query logic.

Migrations create and modify database schema with version control; run php artisan migrate. Seeders populate test or initial data; combine them in DatabaseSeeder for repeatable setup across environments.

Use PHPUnit for unit and feature tests. Validate input early in form requests, handle exceptions with custom error responses, log errors for debugging, and leverage Laravel's exception handler for consistent error formatting across your API.