PHP Application URL Routing

Question

So I'm writing a framework on which I want to base a few apps that I'm working on (the framework is there so I have an environment to work with, and a system that will let me, for example, use a single sign-on)

I want to make this framework, and the apps it has use a Resource Oriented Architecture.

Now, I want to create a URL routing class that is expandable by APP writers (and possibly also by CMS App users, but that's WAYYYY ahead in the future) and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it by looking at how other apps do it.

Answer 1

I prefer to use reg ex over making my own format since it is common knowledge. I wrote a small class that I use which allows me to nest these reg ex routing tables. I use to use something similar that was implemented by inheritance but it didn't need inheritance so I rewrote it.

I do a reg ex on a key and map to my own control string. Take the below example. I visit /api/related/joe and my router class creates a new object ApiController and calls it's method relatedDocuments(array('tags' => 'joe'));

// the 12 strips the subdirectory my app is running in
$index = urldecode(substr($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"], 12)); 

Route::process($index, array(
    "#^api/related/(.*)$#Di"    => "ApiController/relatedDocuments/tags",

    "#^thread/(.*)/post$#Di"    => "ThreadController/post/title",
    "#^thread/(.*)/reply$#Di"   => "ThreadController/reply/title",
    "#^thread/(.*)$#Di"         => "ThreadController/thread/title",

    "#^ajax/tag/(.*)/(.*)$#Di"  => "TagController/add/id/tags",
    "#^ajax/reply/(.*)/post$#Di"=> "ThreadController/ajaxPost/id",
    "#^ajax/reply/(.*)$#Di"     => "ArticleController/newReply/id",
    "#^ajax/toggle/(.*)$#Di"    => "ApiController/toggle/toggle",

    "#^$#Di"                    => "HomeController",
));

In order to keep errors down and simplicity up you can subdivide your table. This way you can put the routing table into the class that it controls. Taking the above example you can combine the three thread calls into a single one.

Route::process($index, array(
    "#^api/related/(.*)$#Di"    => "ApiController/relatedDocuments/tags",

    "#^thread/(.*)$#Di"         => "ThreadController/route/uri",

    "#^ajax/tag/(.*)/(.*)$#Di"  => "TagController/add/id/tags",
    "#^ajax/reply/(.*)/post$#Di"=> "ThreadController/ajaxPost/id",
    "#^ajax/reply/(.*)$#Di"     => "ArticleController/newReply/id",
    "#^ajax/toggle/(.*)$#Di"    => "ApiController/toggle/toggle",

    "#^$#Di"                    => "HomeController",
));

Then you define ThreadController::route to be like this.

function route($args) {
    Route::process($args['uri'], array(
        "#^(.*)/post$#Di"    => "ThreadController/post/title",
        "#^(.*)/reply$#Di"   => "ThreadController/reply/title",
        "#^(.*)$#Di"         => "ThreadController/thread/title",
    ));
}

Also you can define whatever defaults you want for your routing string on the right. Just don't forget to document them or you will confuse people. I'm currently calling index if you don't include a function name on the right. Here is my current code. You may want to change it to handle errors how you like and or default actions.