A lightweight and simple object oriented PHP Router. Built by Bram(us) Van Damme (https://www.bram.us) and Contributors
- Supports
GET
,POST
,PUT
,DELETE
,OPTIONS
,PATCH
andHEAD
request methods - Routing shorthands such as
get()
,post()
,put()
, … - Static Route Patterns
- Dynamic Route Patterns: Dynamic PCRE-based Route Patterns or Dynamic Placeholder-based Route Patterns
- Optional Route Subpatterns
- Supports
X-HTTP-Method-Override
header - Subrouting / Mounting Routes
- Allowance of
Class@Method
calls - Custom 404 handling
- Before Route Middlewares
- Before Router Middlewares / Before App Middlewares
- After Router Middleware / After App Middleware (Finish Callback)
- Works fine in subfolders
- PHP 5.3 or greater
- URL Rewriting
Installation is possible using Composer
composer require bramus/router ~1.6
A demo is included in the demo
subfolder. Serve it using your favorite web server, or using PHP 5.4+'s built-in server by executing php -S localhost:8080
on the shell. A .htaccess
for use with Apache is included.
Additionally a demo of a mutilingual router is also included. This can be found in the demo-multilang
subfolder and can be ran in the same manner as the normal demo.
Create an instance of \Bramus\Router\Router
, define some routes onto it, and run it.
// Require composer autoloader
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
// Create Router instance
$router = new \Bramus\Router\Router();
// Define routes
// ...
// Run it!
$router->run();
Hook routes (a combination of one or more HTTP methods and a pattern) using $router->match(method(s), pattern, function)
:
$router->match('GET|POST', 'pattern', function() { … });
bramus/router
supports GET
, POST
, PUT
, PATCH
, DELETE
, HEAD
(see note), and OPTIONS
HTTP request methods. Pass in a single request method, or multiple request methods separated by |
.
When a route matches against the current URL (e.g. $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']
), the attached route handling function will be executed. The route handling function must be a callable. Only the first route matched will be handled. When no matching route is found, a 404 handler will be executed.
Shorthands for single request methods are provided:
$router->get('pattern', function() { /* ... */ });
$router->post('pattern', function() { /* ... */ });
$router->put('pattern', function() { /* ... */ });
$router->delete('pattern', function() { /* ... */ });
$router->options('pattern', function() { /* ... */ });
$router->patch('pattern', function() { /* ... */ });
You can use this shorthand for a route that can be accessed using any method:
$router->all('pattern', function() { … });
Note: Routes must be hooked before $router->run();
is being called.
Note: There is no shorthand for match()
as bramus/router
will internally re-route such requrests to their equivalent GET
request, in order to comply with RFC2616 (see note).
Route Patterns can be static or dynamic:
- Static Route Patterns contain no dynamic parts and must match exactly against the
path
part of the current URL. - Dynamic Route Patterns contain dynamic parts that can vary per request. The varying parts are named subpatterns and are defined using either Perl-compatible regular expressions (PCRE) or by using placeholders
A static route pattern is a regular string representing a URI. It will be compared directly against the path
part of the current URL.
Examples:
/about
/contact
Usage Examples:
// This route handling function will only be executed when visiting http(s)://www.example.org/about
$router->get('/about', function() {
echo 'About Page Contents';
});
This type of Route Patterns contain dynamic parts which can vary per request. The varying parts are named subpatterns and are defined using regular expressions.
Examples:
/movies/(\d+)
/profile/(\w+)
Commonly used PCRE-based subpatterns within Dynamic Route Patterns are:
\d+
= One or more digits (0-9)\w+
= One or more word characters (a-z 0-9 _)[a-z0-9_-]+
= One or more word characters (a-z 0-9 _) and the dash (-).*
= Any character (including/
), zero or more[^/]+
= Any character but/
, one or more
Note: The PHP PCRE Cheat Sheet might come in handy.
The subpatterns defined in Dynamic PCRE-based Route Patterns are converted to parameters which are passed into the route handling function. Prerequisite is that these subpatterns need to be defined as parenthesized subpatterns, which means that they should be wrapped between parens:
// Bad
$router->get('/hello/\w+', function($name) {
echo 'Hello ' . htmlentities($name);
});
// Good
$router->get('/hello/(\w+)', function($name) {
echo 'Hello ' . htmlentities($name);
});
Note: The leading /
at the very beginning of a route pattern is not mandatory, but is recommended.
When multiple subpatterns are defined, the resulting route handling parameters are passed into the route handling function in the order they are defined in:
$router->get('/movies/(\d+)/photos/(\d+)', function($movieId, $photoId) {
echo 'Movie #' . $movieId . ', photo #' . $photoId;
});
This type of Route Patterns are the same as Dynamic PCRE-based Route Patterns, but with one difference: they don't use regexes to do the pattern matching but they use the more easy placeholders instead. Placeholders are strings surrounded by curly braces, e.g. {name}
. You don't need to add parens around placeholders.
Examples:
/movies/{id}
/profile/{username}
Placeholders are easier to use than PRCEs. They offer you less control as they internally get translated to a PRCE that matches any character (.*
), unless they are used with extra PCRE patterns:
/movies/{id:\d+}
/profile/{username:\w{3,}}
$router->get('/movies/{movieId}/photos/{photoId}', function($movieId, $photoId) {
echo 'Movie #' . $movieId . ', photo #' . $photoId;
});
Note: the name of the placeholder does not need to match with the name of the parameter that is passed into the route handling function:
$router->get('/movies/{foo}/photos/{bar}', function($movieId, $photoId) {
echo 'Movie #' . $movieId . ', photo #' . $photoId;
});
This type of placeholders is also required when using URI Generation and Named Routes.
Routes can be named, optionally. This is required when using URI Generation.
$router->get('/movies/{movieId:\d+}/photos/', function($movieId) {
echo 'Photos of movie #' . $movieId;
}, 'movie.photos');
Route URIs can be generated from Named Routes with Dynamic Placeholder-based Route Patterns.
$router->route('movie.photos', ['movieId' => 4711]); // Result: /movies/4711/photos
The array index has to match the name of the placeholder. Left-overs in the array will be added as query string:
$router->route('movie.photos', ['movieId' => 4711, 'sortBy' => 'date']); // Result: /movies/4711/photos?sortBy=date
Note: Any PCRE-based patterns in the route will be removed.
$router->get('/movies/{movieId:\d+}/photos/(\d+)?', function($movieId, $photoId=null) {
if ($photoId !== null) {
echo 'Photo #' . $photoId . ' of movie #' . $movieId;
} else {
echo 'All photos of movie #' . $movieId;
}
}, 'movie.photos');
// ...
$router->route('movie.photos', ['movieId' => 4711]); // Result: /movies/4711/photos
Route subpatterns can be made optional by making the subpatterns optional by adding a ?
after them. Think of blog URLs in the form of /blog(/year)(/month)(/day)(/slug)
:
$router->get(
'/blog(/\d+)?(/\d+)?(/\d+)?(/[a-z0-9_-]+)?',
function($year = null, $month = null, $day = null, $slug = null) {
if (!$year) { echo 'Blog overview'; return; }
if (!$month) { echo 'Blog year overview'; return; }
if (!$day) { echo 'Blog month overview'; return; }
if (!$slug) { echo 'Blog day overview'; return; }
echo 'Blogpost ' . htmlentities($slug) . ' detail';
}
);
The code snippet above responds to the URLs /blog
, /blog/year
, /blog/year/month
, /blog/year/month/day
, and /blog/year/month/day/slug
.
Note: With optional parameters it is important that the leading /
of the subpatterns is put inside the subpattern itself. Don't forget to set default values for the optional parameters.
The code snipped above unfortunately also responds to URLs like /blog/foo
and states that the overview needs to be shown - which is incorrect. Optional subpatterns can be made successive by extending the parenthesized subpatterns so that they contain the other optional subpatterns: The pattern should resemble /blog(/year(/month(/day(/slug))))
instead of the previous /blog(/year)(/month)(/day)(/slug)
:
$router->get('/blog(/\d+(/\d+(/\d+(/[a-z0-9_-]+)?)?)?)?', function($year = null, $month = null, $day = null, $slug = null) {
// ...
});
Note: It is highly recommended to always define successive optional parameters.
To make things complete use quantifiers to require the correct amount of numbers in the URL:
$router->get('/blog(/\d{4}(/\d{2}(/\d{2}(/[a-z0-9_-]+)?)?)?)?', function($year = null, $month = null, $day = null, $slug = null) {
// ...
});
Use $router->mount($baseroute, $fn)
to mount a collection of routes onto a subroute pattern. The subroute pattern is prefixed onto all following routes defined in the scope. e.g. Mounting a callback $fn
onto /movies
will prefix /movies
onto all following routes.
$router->mount('/movies', function() use ($router) {
// will result in '/movies/'
$router->get('/', function() {
echo 'movies overview';
});
// will result in '/movies/id'
$router->get('/(\d+)', function($id) {
echo 'movie id ' . htmlentities($id);
});
});
Nesting of subroutes is possible, just define a second $router->mount()
in the callable that's already contained within a preceding $router->mount()
.
We can route to the class action like so:
$router->get('/(\d+)', '\App\Controllers\User@showProfile');
When a request matches the specified route URI, the showProfile
method on the User
class will be executed. The defined route parameters will be passed to the class method.
The method can be static (recommended) or non-static (not-recommended). In case of a non-static method, a new instance of the class will be created.
If most/all of your handling classes are in one and the same namespace, you can set the default namespace to use on your router instance via setNamespace()
$router->setNamespace('\App\Controllers');
$router->get('/users/(\d+)', 'User@showProfile');
$router->get('/cars/(\d+)', 'Car@showProfile');
The default 404 handler sets a 404 status code and exits. You can override this default 404 handler by using $router->set404(callable);
$router->set404(function() {
header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found');
// ... do something special here
});
You can also define multiple custom routes e.x. you want to define an /api
route, you can print a custom 404 page:
$router->set404('/api(/.*)?', function() {
header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found');
header('Content-Type: application/json');
$jsonArray = array();
$jsonArray['status'] = "404";
$jsonArray['status_text'] = "route not defined";
echo json_encode($jsonArray);
});
Also supported are Class@Method
callables:
$router->set404('\App\Controllers\Error@notFound');
The 404 handler will be executed when no route pattern was matched to the current URL.
💡 You can also manually trigger the 404 handler by calling $router->trigger404()
$router->get('/([a-z0-9-]+)', function($id) use ($router) {
if (!Posts::exists($id)) {
$router->trigger404();
return;
}
// …
});
bramus/router
supports Before Route Middlewares, which are executed before the route handling is processed.
Like route handling functions, you hook a handling function to a combination of one or more HTTP request methods and a specific route pattern.
$router->before('GET|POST', '/admin/.*', function() {
if (!isset($_SESSION['user'])) {
header('location: /auth/login');
exit();
}
});
Unlike route handling functions, more than one before route middleware is executed when more than one route match is found.
Before route middlewares are route specific. Using a general route pattern (viz. all URLs), they can become Before Router Middlewares (in other projects sometimes referred to as before app middlewares) which are always executed, no matter what the requested URL is.
$router->before('GET', '/.*', function() {
// ... this will always be executed
});
Run one (1) middleware function, name the After Router Middleware (in other projects sometimes referred to as after app middlewares) after the routing was processed. Just pass it along the $router->run()
function. The run callback is route independent.
$router->run(function() { … });
Note: If the route handling function has exit()
ed the run callback won't be run.
Use X-HTTP-Method-Override
to override the HTTP Request Method. Only works when the original Request Method is POST
. Allowed values for X-HTTP-Method-Override
are PUT
, DELETE
, or PATCH
.
Out-of-the box bramus/router
will run in any (sub)folder you place it into … no adjustments to your code are needed. You can freely move your entry script index.php
around, and the router will automatically adapt itself to work relatively from the current folder's path by mounting all routes onto that basePath.
Say you have a server hosting the domain www.example.org
using public_html/
as its document root, with this little entry script index.php
:
$router->get('/', function() { echo 'Index'; });
$router->get('/hello', function() { echo 'Hello!'; });
-
If your were to place this file (along with its accompanying
.htaccess
file or the like) at the document root level (e.g.public_html/index.php
),bramus/router
will mount all routes onto the domain root (e.g./
) and thus respond tohttps://www.example.org/
andhttps://www.example.org/hello
. -
If you were to move this file (along with its accompanying
.htaccess
file or the like) into a subfolder (e.g.public_html/demo/index.php
),bramus/router
will mount all routes onto the current path (e.g./demo
) and thus repsond tohttps://www.example.org/demo
andhttps://www.example.org/demo/hello
. There's no need for$router->mount(…)
in this case.
In case you don't want bramus/router
to automatically adapt itself to the folder its being placed in, it's possible to manually override the basePath by calling setBasePath()
. This is necessary in the (uncommon) situation where your entry script and your entry URLs are not tightly coupled (e.g. when the entry script is placed into a subfolder that does not need be part of the URLs it responds to).
// Override auto base path detection
$router->setBasePath('/');
$router->get('/', function() { echo 'Index'; });
$router->get('/hello', function() { echo 'Hello!'; });
$router->run();
If you were to place this file into a subfolder (e.g. public_html/some/sub/folder/index.php
), it will still mount the routes onto the domain root (e.g. /
) and thus respond to https://www.example.org/
and https://www.example.org/hello
(given that your .htaccess
file – placed at the document root level – rewrites requests to it)
Integrate other libraries with bramus/router
by making good use of the use
keyword to pass dependencies into the handling functions.
$tpl = new \Acme\Template\Template();
$router->get('/', function() use ($tpl) {
$tpl->load('home.tpl');
$tpl->setdata(array(
'name' => 'Bramus!'
));
});
$router->run(function() use ($tpl) {
$tpl->display();
});
Given this structure it is still possible to manipulate the output from within the After Router Middleware
There's no such thing as $_PUT
in PHP. One must fake it:
$router->put('/movies/(\d+)', function($id) {
// Fake $_PUT
$_PUT = array();
parse_str(file_get_contents('php://input'), $_PUT);
// ...
});
When making HEAD
requests all output will be buffered to prevent any content trickling into the response body, as defined in RFC2616 (Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1):
The HEAD method is identical to GET except that the server MUST NOT return a message-body in the response. The metainformation contained in the HTTP headers in response to a HEAD request SHOULD be identical to the information sent in response to a GET request. This method can be used for obtaining metainformation about the entity implied by the request without transferring the entity-body itself. This method is often used for testing hypertext links for validity, accessibility, and recent modification.
To achieve this, bramus/router
but will internally re-route HEAD
requests to their equivalent GET
request and automatically suppress all output.
bramus/router
ships with unit tests using PHPUnit.
-
If PHPUnit is installed globally run
phpunit
to run the tests. -
If PHPUnit is not installed globally, install it locally throuh composer by running
composer install --dev
. Run the tests themselves by callingvendor/bin/phpunit
.The included
composer.json
will also installphp-code-coverage
which allows one to generate a Code Coverage Report. Runphpunit --coverage-html ./tests-report
(XDebug required), a report will be placed into thetests-report
subfolder.
bramus/router
is inspired upon Klein, Ham, and JREAM/route . Whilst Klein provides lots of features it is not object oriented. Whilst Ham is Object Oriented, it's bad at separation of concerns as it also provides templating within the routing class. Whilst JREAM/route is a good starting point it is limited in what it does (only GET routes for example).
bramus/router
is released under the MIT public license. See the enclosed LICENSE
for details.