Routing rules are defined in your /app/Config/Routes.php file.
There is a one-to-one relationship between a URL string and its corresponding controller class/method. The segments in a URI normally follow this pattern:
example.com/class/function/id/
Syntax:
$routes->add('from', 'to', $options);
In some cases, you may want to remap this relationship so that a different class/method can be called instead of the one corresponding to the URL.
To learn how to implement routers on a real-world project, we will assume that we are creating an application for managing contact details. The following table shows the URLs that will be working with.
| No. | URL | Route | Controller | Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | / | $route->add(‘Contacts::index’) | Contacts | index |
| 2 | /contacts | $route->add(‘Contacts::list’) | Contacts | list |
| 3 | /contacts/add | $route->add(‘Contacts::contacts/add’) | Contacts | add |
| 4 | /contacts/create | $route->post(‘Contacts::contacts/create’) | Contacts | add |
| 5 | /contacts/edit/id | $route->get(‘Contacts::contacts/edit/(:num)’) | Contacts | edit |
| 6 | /contacts/update | $route->post(‘Contacts::contacts/update’) | Contacts | update |
| 7 | /contacts/delete/id | $route->get(‘Contacts::contacts/delete/(:num)’) | welcome | delete |
Create URLs for Applications
create routes for our project. Open /app/Config/Routes.php
$routes->setDefaultController('Home');
$routes->setDefaultMethod('index');
$routes->add('/', 'Contacts::index');
$routes->add('contacts/list', 'Contacts::list');
$routes->add('contacts/add', 'Contacts::add');
$routes->post('contacts/create', 'Contacts::create');
$routes->get('contacts/edit/(:any)', 'Contacts::edit/$1');
$routes->post('contacts/update', 'Contacts::update');
$routes->get('contacts/delete/(:any)', 'Contacts::delete/$1');
The following table shows the respective URLs obtained from the above-defined routes
| No. | Route | URL |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $routes->add(‘/’, ‘Contacts::index’); | http://localhost |
| 2 | $routes->add(‘contacts/list’, ‘Contacts::list’) | http://localhost/contacts/list |
| 3 | $routes->add(‘contacts/add’, ‘Contacts::add’); | http://localhost/contacts/add |
| 3 | $routes->post(‘contacts/create’, ‘Contacts::create’); | http://localhost/contacts/create |
| 4 | $routes->get(‘contacts/edit/(:any)’, ‘Contacts::edit/$1’); | http://localhost/contacts/edit/1 |
| 5 | $routes->post(‘contacts/update’, ‘Contacts::update’); | http://localhost/contacts/update/1 |
| 6 | $routes->get(‘contacts/delete/(:any)’, ‘Contacts::delete/$1’); | http://localhost/contacts/delete/1 |
Directory structure
/app Views + contacts - add.php - list.php - edit.php + innerpages - header.php - footer.php - template.php - home.php
Global Options
The methods for creating a route (add, get, post, resource, etc.) can take an array of options that can modify the generated routes or further restrict them. The $options an array is always the last parameter:
$routes->get('from', 'to', $options);
$routes->post('from', 'to', $options);
$routes->put('from', 'to', $options);
$routes->head('from', 'to', $options);
$routes->options('from', 'to', $options);
$routes->delete('from', 'to', $options);
$routes->patch('from', 'to', $options);
$routes->match(['get', 'put'], 'from', 'to', $options);
$routes->resource('photos', $options);
$routes->map($array, $options);
$routes->group('name', $options, function());