Laravel - Ressource CRUD

Introduction

The term CRUD is related to the management of digital data. It summarizes the operations or functions that a user needs to create and manage data.

The acronym CRUD stands for the four basic operations for interacting with database applications:

• Create : Create a data.
• Read : Read a data.
• Update : Update a data.
• Delete : Delete a data.

CRUD, SQL and HTTP

Each component of the CRUD acronym can be associated with a type of query in SQL as well as an HTTP1,2 method :

As you can see, we can associate CRUD method with HTTP method. That's why CRUD design is extremly used in REST APIs.

CRUD and Laravel Resource

Laravel can handle the CRUD design by default. In Laravel (and in general) that's called a Resource. A Resource is represented by a Model controlled by the CRUD design of a Controller and Routes. Laravel artisan has a command to generate all the CRUD actions of a controller and all related routes :

php artisan make:controller PhotoController --resource

This command will generate the following code :

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class PhotoController extends Controller
{
	/**
	* Display a listing of the resource.
	*
	* @return \Illuminate\Http\\Response
	*/
	public function index()
	{
		//
	}

	/**
	* Show the form for creating a new resource.
	*
	* @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
	*/
	public function create()
	{
		//
	}

	/**
	* Store a newly created resource in storage.
	*
	* @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
	* @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
	*/
	public function store(Request $request)
	{
		//
	}

	/**
	* Display the specified resource.
	*
	* @param  int  $id
	* @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
	*/
	public function show($id)
	{
		//
	}

	/**
	* Show the form for editing the specified resource.
	*
	* @param  int  $id
	* @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
	*/
	public function edit($id)
	{
		//
	}

	/**
	* Update the specified resource in storage.
	*
	* @param  \Illuminate\Http\Request  $request
	* @param  int  $id
	* @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
	*/
	public function update(Request $request, $id)
	{
		//
	}

	/**
	* Remove the specified resource from storage.
	*
	* @param  int  $id
	* @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
	*/
	public function destroy($id)
	{
		//
	}
}

We can translate the controller code to this array :

Method	URI	Action	Route Name	Description	Used in REST APIs
GET	/photos	index	photos.index	Display all photos
GET	/photos/create	create	photos.create	Show the form for creating a photo
POST	/photos	store	photos.store	Create a photo
GET	/photos/{photo}	show	photos.show	Display a photo
GET	/photos/{photo}/edit	edit	photos.edit	Show the form for editing a photo
PUT/PATCH	/photos/{photo}	update	photos.update	Edit a photo
DELETE	/photos/{photo}	destroy	photos.destroy	Delete a photo

When to use Resource Controllers

You should use resource controllers when :

• You want to rapidly prototype CRUD interfaces.
• Your controller logic follows the classic create/read/update/delete pattern.
• You're building a RESTful API or an admin panel.

Laravel's resource controller gives you convention over configuration. It makes your code easier to read, maintain, and follow best practices for RESTful development.

Customize Resource Routes

If you don’t need all the 7 routes, you can customize them like this:

Route::resource('photos', PhotoController::class)->only([
    'index', 'show'
]);

Route::resource('photos', PhotoController::class)->except([
    'destroy'
]);

This is useful when, for example, your app doesn't allow deleting items via the UI but still follows the same CRUD logic.

Conclusion

Using Laravel resource controllers is one of the most efficient ways to structure a CRUD application. It helps you follow REST conventions, saves development time, and makes your application logic cleaner.

You now know:

• What CRUD is and its relationship with HTTP & SQL
• How Laravel structures CRUD via resource controllers
• How to generate and use resource routes
• How to customize or limit them

🔗 Learn more in the Laravel Documentation