Contact Form Backend API service

This project was generated with Laravel, a PHP framework for building modern web applications.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have PHP and Composer installed on your local machine. You will also need SQLite for local development, though you can configure another database system for production in the .env file.

Cloning the Project

To get started, clone the repository to your local machine:

git clone https://github.com/kamula/contact_form_backend.git
cd contact_form_backend

Environment Setup

After cloning the project, copy the contents from env.sample to a new .env file:

cp .env.example .env

Edit the .env file to configure your database and other environment settings. Make sure the database connection settings are appropriate for SQLite:

DB_CONNECTION=sqlite

Preparing the Database

Create an empty file named database.sqlite in the database directory of your project:

touch database/database.sqlite

Installing Dependencies

Run the following command to install the necessary PHP dependencies:

composer install

Database Migration

To set up your database schema, run the migrations:

php artisan migrate

Running the Server

Start the Laravel development server:

php artisan serve

Navigate to http://localhost:8000/ to view the application.

API Documentation

For detailed API usage and examples, please refer to our API Documentation on Postman.

Reasons for Using SQLite

Ease of Setup: SQLite databases are easy to set up and require no separate server process.
Portability: A SQLite database is stored in a single file, which can easily be copied or shared.
Low Resource Usage: SQLite is light on resources, which makes it perfect for development and testing environments.

Switching Database in Production

While SQLite is suitable for development, you may opt for a more robust database system in production (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL). Laravel's database agnostic architecture allows you to switch databases simply by updating your .env configuration.

Validations

Validation rules are applied in the ContactController to ensure that fullName, email, and message are correctly formatted and not empty, enhancing data integrity and security.