var
`-- www
    `-- htdocs
        |-- index.htm
        |-- about.htm
        `-- news.htm
            

What about...

• application architecture?
• consistent URL schema?
• SEO?
• generating links?

Front controller

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ app.php [QSA,L]
            

Routing

switch($path) {
    case '/':
        return $controller->renderHomepage();
    case '/about':
        return $controller->renderAbout();
    default:
        return $controller->render404();
}
            

What about /product/{id} ?

Regular Expressions!

What about flexibility and efficiency?

...

Use an existing library!

The Symfony Routing component

• Transform Request object to array with routing information
• Full stack framework: _controller

public interface RequestMatcherInterface
{
    /**
     * @param Request $request request to match
     *
     * @return array An array of parameters
     *
     * @throws ResourceNotFoundException
     * @throws MethodNotAllowedException
     */
    public function matchRequest(Request $request);
}

The default router

• RouteCollection and ways to define it
• UrlMatcher and UrlGenerator
• Router (all in one)
  • LoaderInterface
  • Matcher and generator
  • Caching functionality

Caching

• dev env checks for file changes
• prod env only on cache:clear

Optimizations

• Compile routes to PHP
• Dump cached matcher, single class
• Group similar routes
• Prefer strpos, use regex only when needed
• Possesive quantifiers in regex

Optimizations: Group routes

/foo/x/{id}


/foo/y/{id}

/bar/baz
            

/foo
+---/x/
|   `--{id}
`---/y/
    `--{id}
/bar/baz
            

Tweaks in your application

• Most frequently hit routes first
• Order matters: Similar paths consecutive

Providing Context

$context = $this->router->getContext();

$context->setHost('example.com');
$context->setScheme('https');
$context->setBaseUrl('my/path');

$this->router->generate(...);
            

Custom router implementation

• Router used in every single request
• Careful with side effects
• Look at the ChainRouter

Lets go full stack!

Not only configuration files

• Load routes in php files for flexibility
• Custom route loaders

                # app/config/routing.yml
                admin_routes:
                    type: service
                    resource: "admin_route_loader:loadRoutes"
            

Custom loader: FOSRestBundle

                # app/config/routing.yml
                product:
                    type: rest
                    resource: AppBundle\Controller\ProductController
            

• Reflection on controller class
• Naming conventions
• Annotations to tweak things
• No need to define routes explicitly

Custom Routers: Multilanguage

• Different URL per language
• Detect locale
• Generate URL in requested locale
• Avoid duplication of configuration

JMSI18nRoutingBundle

• Translate pattern in Symfony translation
• Path prefix for locale or domain per locale

# routing.yml
homepage:
    path:  /welcome
    defaults: { _controller: MyWebsiteBundle:Frontend:index }

# translations/routes.de.yml
homepage: /willkommen

BeSimpleI18nRoutingBundle

• Custom type of route when loading
• Configure path in localized fields

type: be_simple_i18n
...
homepage:
    locales:
        en: /welcome
        de: /willkommen
    defaults: { _controller: MyWebsiteBundle:Frontend:index }

Editable routes with CMF DynamicRouter

• Load candidate routes from database
• Indexed lookup
• Handle huge number of routes with no performance penalty
• No issue with frequently editing routes
• SEO URLs for content pages

ChainRouter

Combine several routers

• Cycle through all routers
• Symfony default and your own or the DynamicRouter