In this lesson we're going to create api endpoints for favouriting question and accepting an answer as best answer. Since we've already had that logics in our existing controller, so we're gonna copy the routes as well as the controllers, then make a bit changes to them and then make some tests in postman.

This lesson also available in PDF. You can download it in course attachment.

Before we begin let's go ahead and open up our terminal and create a new branch:

git checkout -b lesson-53

Creating the Endpoints

1. Copy-Paste the FavoriteController & AcceptAnswerController

Alright, let's navigate to app/Http/Controller directory. Inside this directory let's copy the FavoriteController and AcceptAnswerController files.

Go to Api subdirectory then paste them inside it.

Firstly, let's open the FavoriteController then fix the namespace stuffs. Then let's get rid of the constructor. And remove all if statements as well as the return back() statement on all methods.

# Api/FavoriteController.php
<?php
  
namespace App\Http\Controllers\Api;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Question;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;

class FavoritesController extends Controller
{
    public function store(Question $question)
    {
        $question->favorites()->attach(auth()->id());

        return response()->json(null, 204);
    }

    public function destroy(Question $question)
    {
        $question->favorites()->detach(auth()->id());

        return response()->json(null, 204);
    }
}

Alright, let's do almost the same thing to AcceptAnswerController. At the top let's add api in the controller namespace. Then import the base Controller namespace. And then remove the if statement as well as the return back.

# Api/AcceptAnswerController.php
<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers\Api;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use App\Answer;

class AcceptAnswerController extends Controller
{
    public function __invoke(Answer $answer)
    {
        $this->authorize('accept', $answer);

        $answer->question->acceptBestAnswer($answer);

        return response()->json([
            'message' => "You have accepted this answer as best answer"
        ]);
    }
}

2. Define the routes

Alright, Let's open up the web.php file. Then let's copy these three routes.

Route::post('/answers/{answer}/accept', 'AcceptAnswerController')->name('answers.accept');
Route::post('/questions/{question}/favorites', 'FavoritesController@store')->name('questions.favorite');
Route::delete('/questions/{question}/favorites', 'FavoritesController@destroy')->name('questions.unfavorite');

Let's open up the api.php file, then paste them inside the auth:api middleware group. Adjust the controller path to Api. Then remove all name from our routes since we're no longer need that for our api.

# routes/api.php
Route::middleware(['auth:api'])->group(function() {
    // ...
    Route::post('/answers/{answer}/accept', 'Api\AcceptAnswerController');
    Route::post('/questions/{question}/favorites', 'Api\FavoritesController@store');
 		Route::delete('/questions/{question}/favorites', 'Api\FavoritesController@destroy');
});

Alright, let's save all changes. And now let's test these endpoints out in Postman.

Testing The Endpoints in postman

1. Testing the Favourite Question endpoint

Let's head over to postman. Then go to Questions folder. Open the Vote question request, then save it as Favorite question.

The method is gonna be post and the url is gonna be ~/api/questions/1/favorites. You can change the question id to any existing number that you have. In my case I'll set it to 1.

The headers will be the same, so you don't need to touch anything in there. You can optionally choose the none option in the Body section.

If you hit the Send button. Make sure you're getting back  204 No Content response wich is the expected response.

2. Testing the Unfavourite Question endpoint

Now let's make another request to test unfavourite question. Let's go ahead and hit the save button on the top right. Choose Save as option and save it as Unfavorite question. Choose the Question folder then hit Save to Questions button to save the request to Questions folder.

Let's change the HTTP method from post to delete. While the url and other things still the same. When you hit the Send button. You're getting back 204 No Content response, awesome.

3. Testing the Accept Answer endpoint

Last, let's make another test for testing our accept answer endpoint. Let's reopen the Favorite Question request. Then go to the top right and hit the Save button and then choose Save as button.

Change the Request Name to Accept answer. Hit the Questions in the top of Select a collection section to go to the root.

Then select the Answers folder to put the test request in Answers folder. Then hit the Save to Answers button.

The last thing that you need to do is to change the url to ~/api/answers/1/accept. When you hit the Save button you're getting back the success message.

Summary

In this lesson, we looked at how to create an api endpoint to mark a certain question as favourite question and and api endpoint for accepting answer. In the next one we're going to create additional endpoint which is going to use to retrieve current user's posts. So this endpoint kind of summary of what questions and answers that current user's logged in have been created.

git add .
git commit -m "Create api endpoints for favoriting the question & accepting answer"
git push origin lesson-53