HTTP - Routing

The framework Web Bundle includes pre-configured router components. To install the router in alternative builds:

$ composer require spiral/router

And activate its Bootloader:

[
    //...
    Spiral\Bootloader\Http\RouterBootloader::class,
]

Read how to define routing using annotations here.

Default Configuration

The default web application bundle allows you to call any controller action located in App\Controllernamespace using /<controller>/<action> pattern. See below how to alter this behavior.

Your controllers must have a Controller suffix.

Configuration

The component does not require any external configuration. You can create new routing via Spiral\Router\RouterInterface in your Bootloader. We can start with a simple / handler:

namespace App\Bootloader;

use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $router->setRoute(
            'home',                                   // route name 
            new Route(
                '/',                                  // pattern
                function () { return 'hello world'; } // handler
            )
        );
    }
}

The Route class can accept a handler of type Psr\Http\Server\RequestHandlerInterface, closure, invokable class, or Spiral\Router\TargetInterface. Simply pass a class or a binding name instead of a real object if you want it to be constructed on demand.

Closure Handler

It is possible to pass the closure as route handler, in this case our function will receive two arguments: Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface and Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface.

router->setRoute('home', new Route(
    '/<name>',
    function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
        $response->getBody()->write("hello world");

        return $response;
    }
));

Route Pattern and Parameters

You can use a route pattern to specify any number of required and optional parameters. These parameters will later pass to the route handler via the ServerRequestInterface attribute matches.

Use attribute:matches.id in Request Filters to access these values.

Use the <parameter_name:pattern> form to define a route parameter, where pattern is a regexp friendly expression. You can omit pattern and just use <parameter_name>, in this case, the parameter will match [^\/]+.

We can add a simple parameter name:

namespace App\Bootloader;

use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface;
use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface;
use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $router->setRoute('home', new Route(
            '/<name>',
            function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
                return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches(); // returns JSON ['name' => '']
            }
        ));
    }
}

Use [] to make a part of route (including the parameters) optional, for example:

$router->setRoute('home', new Route(
    '/[<name>]',
    function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
        return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
    }
));

This route will match /, the name parameter will be null.

You can specify any number of parameters and make some of them optional, for example we can match URLs like /group/user, where user is optional:

$router->setRoute('home', new Route(
    '/<group>[/<user>]',
    function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
        return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
    }
));

You can specify default parameter value using third route argument:

$router->setRoute('home', new Route(
    '/<group>[/<user>]',
    function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
        return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
    },
    [
        'user' => 'default'
    ]
));

Use <parameter:pattern> to specify parameter pattern:

$router->setRoute('home', new Route(
    '/user/<id:\d+>',
    function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
        return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
    }
));

This route will only match URLs with numeric id.

You can also specify multiple pre-defined options:

$router->setRoute('home', new Route(
    '/do/<action:login|logout>',
    function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
        return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
    }
));

This route will only match /do/login and /do/logout.

Match Host

To match the domain or sub-domain name, prefix your pattern with //:

$router->setRoute('home', new Route(
    '//<host>/',
    function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
        return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
    }
));

To match sub-domain:

$router->setRoute('home', new Route(
    '//<sub>.domain.com/',
    function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
        return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
    }
));

You can combine host and path matching:

$router->setRoute('home', new Route(
    '//<sub>.domain.com/[<action>]',
    function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
        return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
    }
));

Immutability

All route objects are immutable by design, you can not change their state after creation, but only make a copy with new values. To set default route parameters outside constructor:

namespace App\Bootloader;

use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface;
use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface;
use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $route = new Route('/[<action>]', function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
            return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
        });

        $router->setRoute('home', $route->withDefaults([
            'action' => 'default'
        ]));
    }
}

Verbs

Use withVerbs method to match routes with only certain HTTP verbs:

namespace App\Bootloader;

use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface;
use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface;
use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $route = new Route('/[<action>]', function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
            return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
        });

        $router->setRoute('get.route',
            $route->withVerbs('GET')->withDefaults(['action' => 'GET'])
        );

        $router->setRoute(
            'post.route',
            $route->withVerbs('POST', 'PUT')->withDefaults(['action' => 'POST'])
        );
    }
}

Middleware

To associate route-specific middleware use withMiddleware, you can access route parameters via route attribute of the request object:

namespace App\Bootloader;

use App\Middleware\ParamWatcher;
use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface;
use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface;
use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $route = new Route('/<param>', function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
            return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
        });

        $router->setRoute('home', $route->withMiddleware(
            ParamWatcher::class
        ));
    }
}

where ParamWatcher is:

namespace App\Middleware;

use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface as Response;
use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface as Request;
use Psr\Http\Server\MiddlewareInterface;
use Psr\Http\Server\RequestHandlerInterface;
use Spiral\Http\Exception\ClientException\UnauthorizedException;
use Spiral\Router\RouteInterface;

class ParamWatcher implements MiddlewareInterface
{
    public function process(Request $request, RequestHandlerInterface $handler): Response
    {
        /** @var RouteInterface $route */
        $route = $request->getAttribute('route');

        if ($route->getMatches()['param'] === 'forbidden') {
           throw new UnauthorizedException();
        }

        return $handler->handle($request);
    }
}

This route will trigger an Unauthorized exception on /forbidden.

You can add as many middlewares as you want.

Multiple Routes

The router will match all routes in the order they were registered. Make sure to avoid situations where the previous route matches the conditions of the following routes.

$router->setRoute(
    'home',
    new Route('/<param>',
        function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
            return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
        }
    )
);

// this route will never trigger
$router->setRoute(
    'hello',
    new Route('/hello',
        function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
            return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
        }
    )
);

Default Route

Spiral Router provides the ability to specify the default/fallback route. This route will always be invoked after every other route and check for matching to its pattern.

E.g., there's no need to define the route for every controller and action if you set up default routing like so:

$router->setRoute(
    'home',
    new Route('/<param>',
        function (ServerRequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response) {
            return $request->getAttribute('route')->getMatches();
        }
    )
);

$router->setDefault(new Route('/', function () {
    return 'default';
}));

See below how to use the default route to scaffold application paths quickly.

Route Targets (Controllers and Actions)

The most effective way to use the router is to target routes to the controllers and their actions. To demonstrate all the capabilities, we will need multiple controllers in App\Controller namespace:

namespace App\Controller;

class HomeController
{
    public function index(): string
    {
        return 'index';
    }

    public function other(): string
    {
        return 'other';
    }

    public function user(int $id): string
    {
        return "hello {$id}";
    }
}

Create a second controller using scaffolding php ./app.php create:controller demo -a test:

namespace App\Controller;

class DemoController
{
    public function test(): string
    {
        return 'demo test';
    }
}

Route to Action

To point your route to the controller action specify route handler as Spiral\Router\Target\Action:

namespace App\Bootloader;

use App\Controller\HomeController;
use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;
use Spiral\Router\Target\Action;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $router->setRoute(
            'index',
            new Route('/index', new Action(HomeController::class, 'index'))
        );
    }
}

You can combine this target with the required or optional parameter. The parameter will be available as method injection to the desired target:

$router->setRoute(
    'user',
    new Route('/user/<id:\d+>', new Action(HomeController::class, 'user'))
);

Wildcard Actions

We can point a route to more than one controller action at the same time, to do that we have to define the parameter <action> in our route pattern. Since one of the methods require <id> parameter, we can make it optional:

$router->setRoute(
    'home',
    new Route('/<action>[/<id>]', new Action(HomeController::class, ['index', 'user']))
);

This route will match both /index and /user/1 paths.

Behind the hood, the route will compile into expression which is aware of action constrains /^(?P<action>index|user)(?:\/(?P<id>[^\/]+))?$/iu. Such approach would not only allow you to increase the performance but also reuse the same pattern with different action sets.

// match "/index"
$router->setRoute(
    'home',
    new Route('/<action>', new Action(HomeController::class, 'index'))
);

// match "/other"
$router->setRoute(
    'home',
    new Route('/<action>', new Action(HomeController::class, 'other'))
);

// match "/test"
$router->setRoute(
    'demo',
    new Route('/<action>', new Action(DemoController::class, 'test'))
);

Route to Controller

You point your route to all of the controller actions at once using Spiral\Router\Target\Controller. This target requires <action> parameter to be defined (unless the default value forced).

namespace App\Bootloader;

use App\Controller\HomeController;
use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;
use Spiral\Router\Target\Controller;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $router->setRoute(
            'home',
            new Route('/home/<action>[/<id>]', new Controller(HomeController::class))
        );
    }
}

Route matches /home/index, /home/other and /home/user/1.

Combine this target with defaults to make your URLs shorter.

$router->setRoute(
    'home',
    (new Route('/home[/<action>[/<id>]]', new Controller(HomeController::class)))
        ->withDefaults(['action' => 'index'])
);

This route will match /home with action=index. Note, you must extend optional path segments [] till the end of the route pattern.

Route to Namespace

In some cases, you might want to route to the set of controllers located in the same namespace. Use target Spiral\Router\Target\Namespaced for these purposes. This target will require route parameters <controller> and <action> (unless default is forced).

You can specify target namespace and controller class postfix:

namespace App\Bootloader;

use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;
use Spiral\Router\Target\Namespaced;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $router->setRoute('app', new Route(
            '/<controller>/<action>',
            new Namespaced('App\Controller', 'Controller')
        ));
    }
}

This route will match /home/index, /home/other and /demo/test.

You can make all the parameters optional and set the default values:

$router->setRoute('app',
    (new Route(
        '[/<controller>[/<action>]]',
        new Namespaced('App\Controller', 'Controller')
    ))->withDefaults([
        'controller' => 'home',
        'action'     => 'index'
    ])
);

This route will match / (home->index), /home (home->index), /home/index, /home/other and /demo/test. The /demo will trigger not-found error as DemoController does not defines method index.

The default web-application bundle sets this route as default. You don't need to create a route for any of the controllers added to App\Contoller, simply use /controller/action URLs to access the required method. If no action is specified, the index will be used by the default. The routing will point to the public methods only.

You can turn the default route off once the development is over.

Route to Controller Group

The alternative is to specify controller names manually without common namespace. Use target Spiral\Router\Target\Group. Target requires <controller> and <action> parameters to be defined (unless default is forced).

namespace App\Bootloader;

use App\Controller\DemoController;
use App\Controller\HomeController;
use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;
use Spiral\Router\Target\Group;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $router->setRoute('app', new Route('/<controller>/<action>', new Group([
            'home' => HomeController::class,
            'demo' => DemoController::class
        ])));
    }
}

Such an approach is useful when you want to assemble multiple modules under one path (i.e., admin panels).

RESTful

All of the route targets listed above support the third argument, which specifies the method selection behavior. Set this parameter as TargetInterface::RESTFUL to automatically prefix all the methods with HTTP verb.

For example, we can use the following controller:

namespace App\Controller;

class UserController
{
    public function getUser(int $id): string
    {
        return "get {$id}";
    }

    public function postUser(int $id): string
    {
        return "post {$id}";
    }

    public function deleteUser(int $id): string
    {
        return "delete {$id}";
    }
}

And route to it:

$router->setRoute('user', new Route(
    '/user/<id:\d+>',
    new Controller(UserController::class, Controller::RESTFUL),
    ['action' => 'user']
));

Invoking /user/1 with different HTTP methods will call different controller methods. Note, you still need to specify the action name.

Sharing target across routes

Another way to define RESTful or similar routing to multiple controllers is to share a common target with different routes. Such an approach will allow you to define your controller style.

For example, we can route different HTTP verbs to the following controller(s):

namespace App\Controller;

class UserController
{
    public function load(int $id): string
    {
        return "get {$id}";
    }

    public function store(int $id): string
    {
        return "post {$id}";
    }

    public function delete(int $id): string
    {
        return "delete {$id}";
    }
}

Let's create an API that will look like GET|POST|DELETE /v1/<controller> and point to the corresponding controller(s) methods.

Our base route will look like:

$resource = new Route('/v1/<controller>', new Group([
    'user' => UserController::class,
]));

We can register it with different HTTP verbs and action values:

namespace App\Bootloader;

use App\Controller\UserController;
use Spiral\Boot\Bootloader\Bootloader;
use Spiral\Router\Route;
use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;
use Spiral\Router\Target\Group;

class RoutesBootloader extends Bootloader
{
    public function boot(RouterInterface $router)
    {
        $resource = new Route('/v1/<controller>/<id>', new Group([
            'user' => UserController::class,
        ]));

        $router->setRoute(
            'resource.get',
            $resource->withVerbs('GET')->withDefaults(['action' => 'load'])
        );

        $router->setRoute(
            'resource.store',
            $resource->withVerbs('POST')->withDefaults(['action' => 'store'])
        );

        $router->setRoute(
            'resource.delete',
            $resource->withVerbs('DELETE')->withDefaults(['action' => 'delete'])
        );
    }
}

Such an approach allows you to use the same route-set for multiple resource controllers.

Url Generation

The router can generate Uri based on any given route and its parameters.

$router->setRoute(
    'home',
    new Route('/home/<action>', new Controller(HomeController::class))
);

Use method uri of RouterInterface to generate URL:

use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;

// ...

public function index(RouterInterface $router)
{
    $uri = $router->uri('home', ['action' => 'index']);

    dump((string)$uri); // /home/index
}

Additional parameters will mount as a query string:

use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;

// ...

public function index(RouterInterface $router)
{
        $uri = $router->uri('home', [
        'action' => 'index',
        'page'   => 123
    ]);

    dump((string)$uri); // /home/index?page=123
}

The uri method will return an instance of Psr\Http\Message\UriInterface:

use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;

// ...

public function index(RouterInterface $router)
{
    $uri = $router->uri('home', [
        'action' => 'index',
        'page'   => 123
    ]);

    dump((string)$uri->withFragment('hello')); // /home/index?page=123#hello
}

Note, all of the parameters passed into the URL pattern will be slugified:

use Spiral\Router\RouterInterface;

// ...

public function index(RouterInterface $router)
{
    $uri = $router->uri('home', [
        'action' => 'hello World',
    ]);

    dump((string)$uri); // /home/hello-world
}

You can use @route(name, params) directive in Stempler views.