Laravel Blog API

A RESTful API for a blog platform built with Laravel, featuring user authentication (via Sanctum), CRUD operations for blog posts, and deployment on AWS EC2.

Features

User Authentication:

• Registration, login, and token-based authentication using Laravel Sanctum.
• Protected API endpoints using middleware.

Blog Management:

• CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) for blog posts.
• Posts are associated with authenticated users.
• Input validation for user data.

Deployment:

• Deployed on AWS EC2 with Nginx, MySQL, and PHP.

Tech Stack

• Backend: Laravel 10
• Authentication: Laravel Sanctum
• Database: MySQL
• Web Server: Nginx
• Deployment: AWS EC2
• Testing: Postman

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Installation

Prerequisites:

• PHP ≥ 8.1
• Composer
• MySQL

Steps:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/laravel-blog-api.git
   cd laravel-blog-api

2. Install dependencies:

   composer install

3. Configure the environment:

   cp .env.example .env
   php artisan key:generate

4. Update .env with your database credentials:

   DB_CONNECTION=mysql
   DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
   DB_PORT=3306
   DB_DATABASE=Blog_db
   DB_USERNAME=***
   DB_PASSWORD=***

5. Migrate the database:

   php artisan migrate

6. Start the server:

   php artisan serve

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API Endpoints

Authentication

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/register	Register a new user.
POST	/api/login	Log in and get a token.

Blog Posts (Protected)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/blogs	Get all blog posts.
POST	/api/blogs	Create a new blog post.
GET	/api/blogs/{id}	Get a specific blog post.
PUT	/api/blogs/{id}	Update a blog post.
DELETE	/api/blogs/{id}	Delete a blog post.

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Deployment on AWS EC2

1. Launch an EC2 Instance:

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (t2.micro).
• Security group allowing SSH (port 22), HTTP (port 80), and HTTPS (port 443).

2. Connect via SSH:

ssh -i "laravel-key.pem" ubuntu@13.61.9.245

3. Install Dependencies:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install php php-mysql nginx mysql-server composer -y

4. Deploy Code:

• Clone your repository or upload files to /home/ubuntu/blog-api.

5. Configure Nginx:

• Create a config file in /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel (refer to Nginx Setup section below).

6. Set Permissions:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /home/ubuntu/blog-api
sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

7. Restart Services:

sudo systemctl restart nginx php8.1-fpm

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Nginx Configuration

Create an Nginx configuration file (/etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel) with the following content:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name 13.61.9.245;

    root /home/ubuntu/blog-api/public;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

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Postman Collection

• Postman Collection link: [https://planetary-shuttle-403016.postman.co/workspace/Team-Workspace~98b8f495-8bca-45ea-89a7-320c16f72b8c/request/43324745-341d4cab-99c2-4db6-8a91-07c6f8028129?action=share&creator=43324745&ctx=documentation&active-environment=43324745-1b67c59b-55ee-4ab8-804e-b09cd79ed051

• Live API URL: http://13.61.9.245:8000/api/blogs

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