Ben Scholzen is …

• Freelancing Software Architect & Consultant
• Author and maintainer of core components in Zend Framework
• Open Source Contributor

• Matching a request and extracting parameters
• Assembling new requests

namespace Zend\Mvc\Router;
use Zend\Stdlib\RequestInterface as Request;

interface RouteInterface
{
    public static function factory($options = array());

    public function match(Request $request);

    public function assemble(
        array $params = array(),
        array $options = array()
    );
}
      

• Collection of routes to match or assemble
• Based on priority stacks
• Implement the route interface
• Types:
  • SimpleRouteStack
  • Http\TreeRouteStack
  • Console\SimpleRouteStack

• Takes care of base URL handling
• Provides functionallity for tree routing
• Helps assembling canocial URLs

use Zend\Mvc\Router\Http\TreeRouteStack;

$router = TreeRouteStack::factory(array(
    'routes' => array(
        // …
    )
));
      

or

$router = new TreeRouteStack();
$router->addRoutes(array(/* … */));
      

• Base URL is used as offset for all routes
• Usually automatically set by ZF2

$router->setBaseUrl('/my/application');
      

• Used for assembling canonical URLs without hostname routes
• Usually automatically set by when Router::match() is called

use Zend\Uri\Http as HttpUri;

$router->setRequestUri(new HttpUri('http://example.com'));
      

• One to rule them all
• Passed to any route when assembling
• Added to any match if not already set

$router->setDefaultParam('key', 'value);
      

$router->setDefaultParams(array(
    'key' => 'value'
));
      

• Route name is passed as option to the router

$url = $router->assemble(
    array(), // Params
    array('name' => 'bacon') // Options
);

echo $url; // /bacon
      

$url = $router->assemble(
    array(), // Params
    array(
        'name' => 'bacon',
        'force_canonical' => true,
    )
);

echo $url; // http://example.com/bacon
      

use Zend\Http\PhpEnvironment\Request;

$request    = new Request();
$routeMatch = $router->match($request);

$routeMatch->getMatchedRouteName();
$routeMatch->getParams();
$routeMatch->getParam($name, $default = null);
      

• Simplest route type
• Matches and assembles literal strings
• Does not match any parameters

array(
    'articles' => array(
        'type' => 'literal',
        'options' => array(
            'route' => '/articles',
            'defaults' => array(
                'controller' => 'Application\Controller\Article',
                'action'     => 'index',
            )
        )
    )
)
      

• Fastest parameter-matching route type
• Matches based on a regular expression
• Assembles based on a replacement pattern

array(
    'article-details' => array(
        'type' => 'regex',
        'options' => array(
            'route' => '/articles/(?P<id>\d+)',
            'spec' => '/articles/%id%',
            'defaults' => array(
                'controller' => 'Application\Controller\Article',
                'action'     => 'details',
            )
        )
    )
)
      

• Matches an unlimited amount of key/value pairs
• Allows to modify key/value and parameter delimiters
• Will assemble any parameters not used by parent routes
• Not suggested to be used on public sites due to duplicate content
  • /controller/index/action/index
  • /action/index/controller/index
• Also has the disadvantage of no validation

array(
    'wildcard' => array(
        'type' => 'wildcard',
        'options' => array(
            'key_value_delimiter' => '/',
            'param_delimiter'     => '/'
        )
    )
)
      

• Most flexible route type
• Very fast matching, as segment patterns are internally converted to regular expressions
• Provides parameter matching based on delimiters and constraints
• Allows optional segments (both literal and parameter parts)

array(
    'article-details' => array(
        'type' => 'segment',
        'options' => array(
            'route' => '/articles[/:id]',
            'constraints' => array('articles' => '\d+'),
            'defaults' => array(
                'controller' => 'Application\Controller\Article',
                'action'     => 'index',
            )
        )
    )
)
      

• Optional parts …
  • … are denoted by square brackets
  • … can be nested
  • … can contain literal strings and parameters
• Parameters are prepended and optionally appended with a colon
• Default delimiter for parameters is a forward slash, but can be changed with curly brackets

• /articles[/page-:pageNo]
  Matches "/articles" and "/articles/page-1"
• /articles/[page-:pageNo]
  Matches "/articles/" and "/articles/page-1"
• /articles/:id{-}-:slug
  Matches "/articles/194-my-awesome-article", but also "/articles/foo/bar/baz-my-awesome-article"
• /conferences/:conference{0-9}::year
  Matches "/conferences/zendcon2012" and "/conferences/dpc2010"

/controller/action/key1/value1/key2/value2 …

• Advantages
  • Easy to use
• Disadvantages
  • Very inflexible
  • Neither search-engine nor user friendly

• ZF < 0.6
• ZF 0.6 – 1.5
• ZF 1.6 – 1.12
• ZF 2.0

• Advantages
  • Very flexible
  • Search-engine and user friendly
• Disadvantages
  • Lots of repetition
  • Slow, as many single routes need to be tested

• ZF < 0.6
• ZF 0.6 – 1.5
• ZF 1.6 – 1.12
• ZF 2.0

• Advantages
  • Easy to set up
  • Chains themself were hidden
• Disadvantages
  • Lots of repetition
  • Slow, as internally, every repeated branch was tested over and over

• ZF < 0.6
• ZF 0.6 – 1.5
• ZF 1.6 – 1.12
• ZF 2.0

• Advantages
  • Easy to set up
  • Great performance
• Disadvantages
  • None known so far

• ZF < 0.6
• ZF 0.6 – 1.5
• ZF 1.6 – 1.12
• ZF 2.0

• Every route can have an unlimited number of child routes
• Child routes are only instantiated when the parent route matches or assembles

namespace Zend\Mvc\Router\Http;
use Zend\Mvc\Router\RouteInterface as BaseRoute;

interface RouteInterface extends BaseRoute
{
    public function getAssembledParams();
}
      

• Automatically created whenever a route has defined child routes
• Consists of a base route and multiple child routes
• Usually never used directly by the user

array(
    'articles' => array(
        'type' => 'literal',
        'options' => array(
            'route' => '/articles', 'defaults' => array(
                'controller' => 'Application\Controller\Article',
                'action' => 'index'
            )
        ),
        'may_terminate' => true,
        'child_routes' => array(
            'details' => array(
                'type' => 'segment', 'route' => '/:id',
                'constraints' => array('articles' => '\d+'),
                'defaults' => array('action' => 'details')
)   )   )   )
      

• Names of parent and child routes are separated with a forward slash

$router->assemble(
    array(),
    array('name' => 'articles/details')
);
      

• Allows matching and assembling hostnames
• Provides simple parameter matching

array(
    'user' => array(
        'type' => 'hostname',
        'options' => array(
            'route' => ':user.users.example.com',
            'defaults' => array(
                'controller' => 'Application\Controller\User',
                'action'     => 'index',
            )
        )
    )
)
      

• Matches and assembles a specific scheme (http, https, …)

array(
    'secure' => array(
        'type' => 'scheme',
        'options' => array(
            'scheme' => 'https'
        )
    )
)
      

• Matches one or more specific methods (GET, POST, PUT, …)
• Will do nothing on assembling

array(
    'non-get' => array(
        'type' => 'method',
        'options' => array(
            'verb' => 'post,put'
        )
    )
)
      

• Converts any query parameter into a route match
• Like the wildcard route, it will assemble any parameters not used by parent routes

array(
    'query' => array(
        'type' => 'query'
    )
)
      

return array(
    'router' => array(
        'routes' => array(
            // …
        )
    )
);
      

class BaconController extends AbstractActionController
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
        $id = $this->params('id'/*, null */);
    }
}
      

class BaconController extends AbstractActionController
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
        $this->redirect()->toRoute(
            'route-name',
            array(), // Params
            array()  // Options
        );
    }
}
      

class BaconController extends AbstractActionController
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
        $url = $this->url(
            'route-name',
            array(), // Params
            array()  // Options
        );

        $this->redirect()->toUrl($url . '#hash-tag');
    }
}
      

<a href="<?php echo $this->url(
    'route-name',
    array(), // Params
    array()  // Options
); ?>">Some Link</a>
      

• Route aliases
• Translatable segments
• Locale detection