Laravel app for web and api

I would split them both up! So everything related to your web application can be found in the following files

• routes/web.php
• app/Http/Controllers

Everything related to your api should be available in

• routes/api.php
• app/Http/Controllers/Api

Note that the routes setup come by default in Laravel. You can easily create your own routes with a different namespace in the RouteServiceProvider to keep them separated.

It's best practice to create service classes and/or repositories that can be reused in both controllers.

Let me know if you have more questions or need more examples ;)

Thanks for the response.

I would love an example of a service class/repository, and how it gets used by the controllers.

Are you actually needing an API or just mobile friendly for the application.

You will probably get something like this

// app/Repositories/PostsRepository.php

class PostsRepository
{
    public function list(): Collection
    {
        return Post::all();
    }
}

// app/Http/Controllers/PostsController.php

class PostsController extends Controller
{
    public function index(PostsRepository $postsRepository)
    {
        $posts = $postsRepository->list();

        return view('posts.index', compact('posts'));
    }
}

// app/Http/Controllers/Api/PostsController.php

class PostsController extends Controller
{
    public function index(PostsRepository $postsRepository)
    {
        $posts = $postsRepository->list();

        return response()->json(compact('posts'));
    }
}

I would personally use something like the new API resources from Laravel for your API responses, check this out: https://laracasts.com/series/whats-new-in-laravel-5-5/episodes/20

Note: This is a really basic example but you probably get the gist of it :)

Have a look at this

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53437781/service-layer-in-laravel-5-7

Resources too. Helps maintain your allowed data via ajax (think fractal)