Routes

Routes

Routing lets you create your own URL paths, based on the path you can load a closure or a controller.

Routing Set-up

Namespaces are included in all classes now. A namespace is like a layer, adding a namespace to a class means there can be multiple classes with the same name as long as each class is in a different namespace.

With routes the namespace is RoutingRouter:: followed by the method call, typing out the namespace every time is long winded, thankfully short cuts can be created by creating an alias:

use RoutingRouter;

By using the use keyword RoutingRouter, it can be referenced as Router.

To define a route, call the static name Router:: followed by either a post or a get ('any' can also be used to match both post and get requests) to match the HTTP action. Next, set the path to match and call a closure or a controller.

Router::any('', 'closure or controller');

Closures

A closure is a function without a name, they are useful when you only need simple logic for a route, to use a closure first call Router:: then set the URL pattern you want to match against, followed by a function.

Router::get('simple', function() { 
  //do something simple
});

Controllers and Models can also be used in a closure by instantiating the root controller.

$c = new AppCoreController();
$m = new AppModelsUsers(); 

$m->getUsers();

Having said that it's best to use a controller, if you need access to a model.

Closures are convenient but can soon become messy.

Controllers

To call a route to a controller, instead of typing a function you can enter a string. In the string type the namespace of the controller (App/Controllers if located in the root of the controllers folder) then the controller name. Finally, specify what method of that class you wish to load. They are dictated by an '@'symbol.

For example, to have a controller called Users (in the root of the controllers folder) and to load ausersList method, you would use the following:

Router::get('users', 'AppControllersUsers@usersList');

The above would call the Users controller and the userList method when /users is located in the URL, via a get request.

Routes can respond to both GET and POST requests.

To use a post route:

Router::post('blogsave', 'AppControllersBlog@savePost');

To respond to either a post or get request, use any:

Router::any('blogsave', 'AppControllersBlog@savePost');

Groups

Group routes are new to 3.0. Routes can now be placed in a group, which allows all routes within the group to inherit the group name.

Router::group('admin', function() {
    Router::any('add', 'AppControllersDemo@cool');
    Router::any('settings', 'AppControllersDemo@nice');
});

Is the equivalent to

Router::any('admin/add', 'AppControllersAdmin@add');
Router::any('admin/settings', 'AppControllersAdmin@settings');

Group Prefixes and Namespaces

The Router::group() can also accept an array as the first parameter and permit commands like:

Router::group(['prefix' => 'admin', 'namespace' => 'AppControllersAdmin'], function() {
    Router::match('get',            'users',             'Users@index');
    Router::match('get',            'users/create',      'Users@create');
    Router::match('post',           'users',             'Users@store');
    Router::match('get',            'users/(:any)',      'Users@show');
    Router::match('get',            'users/(:any)/edit', 'Users@edit');
    Router::match(['put', 'patch'], 'users/(:any)',      'Users@update');
    Router::match('delete',         'users/(:any)',      'Users@destroy');
});

Where the prefix admin will turn the route users/create into admin/users/create and the namespaceAppControllersAdmin will prepend onto Users@create, turning intoAppControllersAdminUsers@create

Router::resource()

The Router::resource() method introduces the ability to write the group of resourceful routes, with the following specifications:

HTTP Method	Route	Controller Method
GET	/photo	index
GET	/photo/create	create
POST	/photo	store
GET	/photo/(:any)	show
GET	/photo/(:any)/edit	edit
PUT/PATCH	/photo/(:any)	update
DELETE	/photo/(:any)	destroy

The previous code snippet can now be written as:

Router::group(['prefix' => 'admin', 'namespace' => 'AppControllersAdmin'], function() {
    Router::resource('users', 'Users');
    Router::resource('categories', 'Categories');
    Router::resource('articles', 'Articles');
});

OR

Router::resource('admin/users', 'AppControllersAdminUsers');
Router::resource('admin/categories', 'AppControllersAdminCategories');
Router::resource('admin/articles', 'AppControllersAdminArticles');

Routing Filters

Routes can also use filters to dynamically pass values to the controller / closure, there are 3 filters:

1. (:any) any - can use characters or numbers
2. (:num) num - can only use numbers
3. (:all) all - will accept everything including any slash paths

To use a filter place the filter inside parenthesis and use a colon inside route path.

Router::get('blog/(:any)', 'AppControllersBlog@post');

Would get past to app/Controllers/Blog.php anything after blog/ will be passed to post method.

public function post($slug)
{
    // Some code ...
}

Optional Parameters

New to 3.0 is allowing filters to be optional

Filters which are written like (:any) are required to match the route but writing a filter as (/(:any))makes it optional.

This route supplied with Nova has one filter that is required then a further 3 optional filters. Multiple filters should be inside the first parenthesis.

Router::any('admin/(:any)(/(:any)(/(:any)(/(:any))))', 'AppControllersDemo@test');

Full Example

use RoutingRouter;

//define routes
Router::get('', 'AppControllersWelcome@index');

//call a controller in called users inside a admin folder inside the controllers folder
Router::('admin/users', 'AppControllersAdminUsers@list');