TinyMVC Documentation

Routing

The routing system in TinyMVC is responsible for matching incoming HTTP requests to their corresponding handlers (closures or controller methods) and processing the response. It provides a fluent, expressive interface for defining routes with support for middleware, parameter binding, and route groups.

Basic Routing

Routes are typically defined in routes/web.php using URI patterns and closures or controller methods:

Closure Example

Route::get('foo', function (Request $request) {
    if ($request->has('name')) {
        return sprintf('Hello %s', $request->input('name'));
    }
    return 'Hello World';
});

Controller Method Example

Route::post('foo', [SomeController::class, 'store']);

Dependency Injection: The router automatically resolves both controller dependencies and route parameters through the dependency injection container.

Show All registered routes

To display all registered routes in your application, you can use the following command:

php spark route:list

HTTP Method Routing

The router provides methods for all standard HTTP verbs:

Basic Verbs

Route::get($uri, $callback);
Route::post($uri, $callback);
Route::put($uri, $callback);
Route::patch($uri, $callback);
Route::delete($uri, $callback);
Route::options($uri, $callback);

Special Cases

// Match any HTTP method
Route::any($uri, $callback);

// Match specific methods
Route::match(['get', 'post'], $uri, $callback);

// Redirect routes
Route::redirect($from, $to, $status = 302);

// Resourceful routes
Route::resource($name, $controller);

// View rendering
Route::view($uri, $template);

// Group routes
Route::group($attributes, $closure);

Route Parameters

Routes can capture segments of the URI as parameters:

Required Parameters

Route::get('user/{id}', function ($id) {
    return "User {$id}";
});

Multiple Parameters

Route::get('posts/{postId}/comments/{commentId}', 
    function ($postId, $commentId) {
        // Logic here
    });

Parameter Matching: Parameters automatically match alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. The {id} parameter specifically matches numeric values.

Named Routes

Routes can be assigned names for easy URL generation:

Route::get('/profile', $callback)->name('profile');

URL Generation

Generate URLs for named routes with parameters:

// Basic route URL
$url = route_url('profile'); // returns string
$url = route('profile'); // returns Url object

// Parameterized route URL
$url = route_url('post.comment', [
    'postId' => 1, 
    'commentId' => 2
]);

Route Groups

Group routes to share common attributes:

Route::group([
    'middleware' => ['auth', 'role:admin'],
    'path' => '/admin',
    'name' => 'admin.'
], function() {
    Route::get('/dashboard', [AdminController::class, 'dashboard']);
    // More routes...
});

Available Group Attributes

Attribute	Description	Example
`middleware`	Array of middlewares to apply to all routes	`['auth', 'throttle']`
`path`	Prefix for all route paths	`'/api/v1'`
`method`	HTTP methods to apply to all routes	`['get', 'post']`
`name`	Prefix for all route names	`'api.'`
`callback`	Controller to use for all routes	`ApiController::class`
`template`	View template prefix	`'admin/'`

Resourceful Routing

Generate multiple routes for a resource controller:

Route::resource('photos', PhotoController::class, 
    name: 'photos',
    middleware: ['auth'],
    only: ['index', 'show'],
    except: ['destroy']
);

Resource Route Mapping

Verb	Path	Action	Route Name
GET	/photos	index	photos.index
GET	/photos/create	create	photos.create
POST	/photos	store	photos.store
GET	/photos/{id}	show	photos.show
GET	/photos/{id}/edit	edit	photos.edit
PUT/PATCH	/photos/{id}	update	photos.update
DELETE	/photos/{id}	destroy	photos.destroy

View Routes

Routes can directly render views or Fireline templates:

// Regular view
Route::view('/welcome', 'welcome');

// Fireline template
Route::fireline('/dashboard', 'dashboard');

Middleware

Assign middleware to routes:

Route::get('/admin', [AdminController::class, 'index'])
    ->middleware(['auth', 'admin']);

Middleware Groups: Middleware defined in route groups will be merged with route-specific middleware, with duplicates removed.

Route Matching Process

When a request comes in, the router:

Iterates through all registered routes in the order they were defined
Checks for a match on both HTTP method and URI pattern
Extracts route parameters from the URI
Applies any route-specific middleware
Executes the route callback or renders the specified view
Returns a Response object

Error Handling

The router throws specific exceptions for routing errors:

RouteNotFoundException - When no matching route is found
InvalidNamedRouteException - When generating a URL for a non-existent named route