Angular, Laravel 4 and MySQL database best practices

Check out this tutorial by the great Dave Mosher, I think it might be exactly what you're looking for, he uses Laravel, Angular, and MySQL:

Youtube Screencast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqAyiqUs93c

Source code: https://github.com/davemo/end-to-end-with-angularjs

The best way to use angular.js and laravel is, using a REST API.

For example, if you have an admin panel to manage users, the method will be,

In your route,

Route::resource('users', 'UsersController');

The controller looks like this,

<?php

/**
*
* Users  Controller
* 
*/

class UsersController extends AdminController {

    /**
     * Display all users.
     *
     * @return Response
     */

    public function index() {

        $users = User::where('id', '!=', Auth::user()->id)->get();

        return Response::json(array(
            'status' => 'success',
            'users' => $users->toArray()),
            200
        );

    }


    /**
     * Show the form for creating a new resource.
     *
     * @return Response
     */

    public function create() {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Store a newly created resource in storage.
     *
     * @return Response
     */

    public function store() {
        // add some validation also
        $input = Input::all();

        $user = new User;

        if ( $input['name'] ) {
            $user->name = $input['name'];
        }
        if ( $input['username'] ) {
            $user->username = $input['username'];
            $user->password = Hash::make($input['username']);
        }
        if ( $input['email'] ) {
            $user->email = $input['email'];
        }


        $user->save();

        return Response::json(array(
            'status' => 'success',
            'users' => $user->toArray()),
            200
        );
    }

    /**
     * Display the specified resource.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return Response
     */

    public function show($id) {
        $user = User::where('id', $id)
                    ->take(1)
                    ->get();

        return Response::json(array(
            'error' => false,
            'users' => $user->toArray()),
            200
        );
    }

    /**
     * Show the form for editing the specified resource.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return Response
     */

    public function edit($id) {
        //
    }

    /**
     * Update the specified resource in storage.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return Response
     */

    public function update($id) {
        // add some validation also
        $input = Input::all();

        $user = User::find($id);

        if ( $input['name'] ) {
            $user->name = $input['name'];
        }
        if ( $input['username'] ) {
            $user->username = $input['username'];
        }
        if ( $input['email'] ) {
            $user->email = $input['email'];
        }


        $user->save();

        return Response::json(array(
            'status' => 'success',
            'message' => 'User Updated'),
            200
        );
    }

    /**
     * Remove the specified resource from storage.
     *
     * @param  int  $id
     * @return Response
     */

    public function destroy($id) {
        $user = User::find($id);

        $user->delete();

        return Response::json(array(
            'status' => 'success',
            'message' => 'User Deleted'),
            200
        );
    }

}

Then the script,

var app = angular.module('myApp', []);
// include this in php page to define root path
app.factory('Data', function(){
    return {
        root_path: "<?php echo Request::root(); ?>/"
    };
});

GET - Get all users

$http({method: 'GET', url: Data.root_path + 'users'}).
success(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    $scope.users = data.users;
}).
error(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    $scope.users = [];
});

GET - Get single user for edit

$http({method: 'GET', url: Data.root_path + 'users/'+id}).
success(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    $scope.entry = data.users[0];
}).
error(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    $scope.entry = [];
});

PUT - Update single user

$http.put(Data.root_path + 'users/'+entry.id, entry).
success(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    //
}).
error(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    //
});

POST - Save new user

$http.post(Data.root_path + 'users', entry).
success(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    //
}).
error(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    //
});

DELETE - Delete a user

$http.delete(Data.root_path +'users/'+id)
.success(function(response) { 
    //
})
.error(function(response) {
    //
});

Create RESTful endpoints to manage resources using Laravel. This is dead simple with the resource controller as already pointed out:

Route::resource('user', 'UsersController');

Then you use an AngularJS resource to interact with that. Example (from docs) of fetching a user, editing the model and then saving (calling via the $ in the callback).

var User = $resource('/user/:userId', {userId:'@id'});
var user = User.get({userId:123}, function() {
  user.abc = true;
  user.$save();
});

http://docs.angularjs.org/api/ngResource.$resource

Even better, create an Angular JS Service for the resource so you can just inject that into multiple controllers and get all the methods defined.

Here's a great post on how to set this up:

http://blog.brunoscopelliti.com/building-a-restful-web-service-with-angularjs-and-php-more-power-with-resource