Richard Mendes
March 19, 2025 •
5 mins
Laravel 12 API Tutorial – How to Set Up Routes & Migrations
In this tutorial, we will walk through the process of installing the routes file (api.php) in Laravel 12, as well as creating and migrating migration files. By default, Laravel 12 does not include the api.php file, so we need to manually install it. Below are the steps to install and create migrations.
Setting Up API Routes
Use this command to install the api.php file, which is required for creating APIs in Laravel 12.
Creating Migrations
Migrations allow you to define and modify database tables using PHP code. We'll create migrations for countries, categories, and languages.
Create Migrations
Run the following Artisan commands to generate migration files:
php artisan make:migration create_countries_table
php artisan make:migration create_categories_table
php artisan make:migration create_languages_table
Define Table Structure in Migration Files
Open the newly created migration files in database/migrations/ and update them:
create_countries_table.php
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
return new class extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*/
public function up(): void
{
Schema::create('countries', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string('name', 100)->unique();
$table->string('code', 10)->unique();
$table->timestamps();
$table->softDeletes();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*/
public function down(): void
{
Schema::dropIfExists('countries');
}
};
create_categories_table.php
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
return new class extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*/
public function up(): void
{
Schema::create('categories', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string('name', 100)->unique();
$table->timestamps();
$table->softDeletes();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*/
public function down(): void
{
Schema::dropIfExists('categories');
}
};
create_languages_table.php
<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
return new class extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*/
public function up(): void
{
Schema::create('languages', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->id();
$table->string('name', 100)->unique();
$table->string('code', 10)->unique();
$table->timestamps();
$table->softDeletes();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*/
public function down(): void
{
Schema::dropIfExists('languages');
}
};
Running Migrations
After defining the migrations, run the following command to create the tables in the database:
If any migrations fail and you need to recreate them, use the command below.
php artisan migrate:refresh
