This session would cover the basic and some advanced Routing concepts in Laravel.

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Laravel - Routing : Basic and some
advanced concepts
-By Pallavi Dhanuka

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Routing:
Introduction
Basic Routing
Routing with Parameters
Named Routing
Route filters
Route groups and prefixing
Handling Errors
Controller routing

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Introduction
● Routing: the coolest feature of Laravel
● Very flexible
● All the routes can be defined in one file:
app/routes.php

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Basic Route
● Can be used for static pages and no need to add any
controller ! Yes, just the view file is enough :)
Route::get('/', function(){
return 'hi';
//or return View::make('login');
});
Url: http://Localhost/
o/p: Hi (or the login page of your app)

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Secured routing
Route::get('myaccount',array('https', function(){
return 'My https secured page';
}));
Url: https://localhost/myaccount
o/p: My https secured page
Url: http://localhost/myaccount
o/p: Not found exception

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Route parameters
Route::get('profile/{name}', function($name)
{
return 'Hey there '. $name.' ! Welcome to whatsapp !';
});
Url: http://localhost/profile/john
o/p : Hey there john! Welcome to whatsapp!

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Optional parameter
Route::get('profile/{name?}', function($name = null)
{
return 'Hey there '. $name.' ! Welcome to whatsapp !';
});
Url: http://localhost/profile/
o/p : Hey there ! Welcome to whatsapp!

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Route constraints
Route::get('profile/{name?}', function($name = null)
{
return 'Hey there '. $name.' ! Welcome to whatsapp !';
})
->where('name', '[A-Za-z]+');
Url: http://localhost/profile/p45
o/p: Redirected to missing page

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Global patterns
● The same constraint is applied to route parameters all
across the routes.php
Route::pattern('id', '[0-9]+');
Route::get('profile/{id}', function($id){
// Only called if {id} is numeric.
});

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Route::get('messages/{type?}',function($type = 'inbox'){
return 'Showing the '.$type.' messages!';
});
Url: http://localhost/messages
o/p: Showing the inbox messages!
Route::get('user/{id}/{name}', function($id, $name){
return 'Hey there '. $name.' ! Welcome to whatsapp !';
})
->where(array('id' => '[0-9]+', 'name' => '[a-z]+'));
Url: http://localhost/user/768/jim
o/p: Hey there jim! Welcome to whatsapp !
Wake up!

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Wake up!
Route::post('foo/bar', function(){
return 'Hello World';
});
Url: http://localhost/foo/bar
o/p: Error : Misssing Route

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Named Routes
Route::get('long/route/user/profile', array('as' => 'profile', function(){
return 'User profile' ;
}));
Url : http://localhost/long/route/user/profile
Call : {{ route('profile') }} or Redirect::route('profile')
$name = Route::currentRouteName(); // gives current route name
Or :
Route::get('user/profile', array('as' => 'profile',
'uses' =>'UserController@showProfile'));

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Route Filters
● Limit the access to a given route
● Useful in authentication and authorization
Define a filter (in app/filters.php)
Route::filter('sessionCheck', function(){
if( ! Session::has('user')){
return Redirect::to('/');
}
});

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Attaching a filter
● Route::get('user', array('before' => 'sessioncheck', function(){
return 'Welcome user!';
}));
● Route::get('user', array('before' => 'sessioncheck', 'uses' =>
'UserController@showProfile'));
● Route::get('user', array('before' => array('auth', 'old'), function(){
return 'You are authenticated and over 200 years old!';
}));

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# To allow the user to access only the screens fetched from the database
Route::filter('userAccess', function(){
$accessList = Session::get('user.accessList');
$screen = Request::segment(1);
$subScreen = Request::segment(2);
// the subscreens' name should be present in the access list fetched from db
// the main screen's name should be present in the access list
if( !$isAdmin && ( ($subScreen != '' && ! in_array($subScreen, $accessList))
|| ( $subScreen == '' && ! in_array($screen, $accessList)) ) ){
return Redirect::to('dashboard');
}
});

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Route groups
● Wouldn’t it be great if we could encapsulate our routes, and apply a filter to the
container?
Route::group(array('before' => 'auth'), function(){
Route::get('user/accounts', function()
{
// Has Auth Filter
});
Route::get('user/profile', function(){
// Has Auth Filter
});
});

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Route prefixing
● If many of your routes share a common URL structure, you could use a route prefix
Route::group(array('prefix' => 'user'), function(){
Route::get('/accounts', function()
{
return 'User account';
});
Route::get('profile', function(){
return 'User profile';
});
});
● Url : http://localhost/user/accounts
http://localhost/user/profile

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Wake up! Wake up!
What will be the outcome of the below code snippet?
Route::group(array('prefix' => 'user', 'before' => 'auth'), function(){
Route::get('/accounts', function()
{
return 'User accounts'
});
Route::get('/profile', function(){
return 'User profile';
});
});
Url: http://localhost/user/profile
o/p: User profile (after getting authenticated by the 'auth' filter)

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Handling errors in Laravel
● Its very easy to handle errors or missing files/routes with Laravel
● Handled in app/start/global.php
/* handles the 404 errors, missing route errors etc*/
App::missing(function($exception){
return Redirect::to('/');
});
App::error(function(Exception $exception, $code){
Log::error($exception);
});
App::fatal(function($exception){
Log::error($exception);
});

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Routing with Controllers
● Controllers are registered in the composer.json
● Route declarations are not dependent on the location of
the controller class file on disk.
● The best way to handle routing for large applications is to
use RESTful Controllers

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Basic Controller
class UserController extends BaseController {
public function showProfile($id){
$user = User::find($id);
return View::make('user.profile', compact('user'));
}
}
In the routes.php :
Route::get('user/{id}','UserController@showProfile');

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Using Namespace
● Define the namespace before the controller class
namespace mynamesp;
● Define the route as below:
Route::get('foo','mynamespMycontroller@method');

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Filters in Controllers
class UserController extends BaseController {
public function __construct(){
$this->beforeFilter('auth', array('except' => 'getLogin'));
$this->beforeFilter('csrf', array('on' => 'post'));
$this->afterFilter('log', array('only' => array('fooAction','barAction')));
}
}

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RESTful Controllers
● Easily handle all the actions in a Controller
● Avoid numerous routes and business logic in routes.php
Syntax:
Route::controller('users', 'UserController');
Url: http://localhost/users/index
o/p: goes to the getIndex action of the UserController
Form posted to : {{ Url('users') }}
o/p: form posted to the postIndex action of the UserController

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Find the outcome !
# Named RESTful Controllers
In my routes.php I have a named route to getIndex action:
Route::controller('blog', 'BlogController', array('getIndex' => 'home'));
And in the BlogController the method getIndex is as follows:
public function getIndex(){
return View::make('blog.home');
}
Url: http://localhost/home
O/p: Gives a not found exception.
Please note here that 'home' is the route name to be used within the application.
The uri 'blog' needs to be given in the url to access the getIndex action of the BlogController

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References
● http://laravel.com/docs/routing
● http://scotch.io/tutorials/simple-and-easy-laravel-routing

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Thank You!