Class Router

Parses the request URL into controller, action, and parameters. Uses the connected routes to match the incoming URL string to parameters that will allow the request to be dispatched. Also handles converting parameter lists into URL strings, using the connected routes. Routing allows you to decouple the way the world interacts with your application (URLs) and the implementation (controllers and actions).

Connecting routes

Connecting routes is done using Router::connect(). When parsing incoming requests or reverse matching parameters, routes are enumerated in the order they were connected. You can modify the order of connected routes using Router::promote(). For more information on routes and how to connect them see Router::connect().

Named parameters

Named parameters allow you to embed key:value pairs into path segments. This allows you create hash structures using URLs. You can define how named parameters work in your application using Router::connectNamed()

Package: Cake\Routing
Copyright: Copyright (c) Cake Software Foundation, Inc. (https://cakefoundation.org)
License: MIT License
Location: Cake/Routing/Router.php

Constants summary

  • string

    'index|show|add|create|edit|update|remove|del|delete|view|item'
  • string

    DAY
    '0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01]'
  • string

    ID
    '[0-9]+'
  • string

    '0[1-9]|1[012]'
  • string

    '[A-Fa-f0-9]{8}-[A-Fa-f0-9]{4}-[A-Fa-f0-9]{4}-[A-Fa-f0-9]{4}-[A-Fa-f0-9]{12}'
  • string

    '[12][0-9]{3}'

Properties summary

  • $_currentRoute protected static
    array
    The route matching the URL of the current request
  • $_fullBaseUrl protected static
    string

    Contains the base string that will be applied to all generated URLs For example https://example.com

  • $_initialState protected static
    array

    Initial state is populated the first time reload() is called which is at the bottom of this file. This is a cheat as get_class_vars() returns the value of static vars even if they have changed.

  • $_namedConfig protected static
    string
    Stores all information necessary to decide what named arguments are parsed under what conditions.
  • $_namedExpressions protected static
    array
    Named expressions
  • $_parseExtensions protected static
    boolean
    Directive for Router to parse out file extensions for mapping to Content-types.
  • $_prefixes protected static
    array

    List of action prefixes used in connected routes. Includes admin prefix

  • $_requests protected static
    array

    Maintains the request object stack for the current request. This will contain more than one request object when requestAction is used.

  • $_resourceMap protected static
    array
    Default HTTP request method => controller action map.
  • $_resourceMapped protected static
    array
    List of resource-mapped controllers
  • $_routeClass protected static
    string
    Default route class to use
  • $_validExtensions protected static
    array
    List of valid extensions to parse from a URL. If null, any extension is allowed.
  • $initialized public static
    boolean
    Have routes been loaded
  • $routes public static
    array
    Array of routes connected with Router::connect()

Method Summary

  • _handleNoRoute() protected static

    A special fallback method that handles URL arrays that cannot match any defined routes.

  • _loadRoutes() protected static
    Loads route configuration
  • _parseExtension() protected static
    Parses a file extension out of a URL, if Router::parseExtensions() is enabled.
  • _setPrefixes() protected static
    Sets the Routing prefixes.
  • _validateRouteClass() protected static
    Validates that the passed route class exists and is a subclass of CakeRoute
  • connect() public static
    Connects a new Route in the router.
  • connectNamed() public static

    Specifies what named parameters CakePHP should be parsing out of incoming URLs. By default CakePHP will parse every named parameter out of incoming URLs. However, if you want to take more control over how named parameters are parsed you can use one of the following setups:

  • currentRoute() public static
    Returns the route matching the current request (useful for requestAction traces)
  • defaultRouteClass() public static
    Set the default route class to use or return the current one
  • extensions() public static
    Get the list of extensions that can be parsed by Router.
  • fullBaseUrl() public static

    Sets the full base URL that will be used as a prefix for generating fully qualified URLs for this application. If no parameters are passed, the currently configured value is returned.

  • getNamedExpressions() public static
    Gets the named route elements for use in app/Config/routes.php
  • getParam() public static
    Gets URL parameter by name
  • getParams() public static
    Gets parameter information
  • getPaths() public static
    Gets path information
  • getRequest() public static
    Gets the current request object, or the first one.
  • mapResources() public static

    Creates REST resource routes for the given controller(s). When creating resource routes for a plugin, by default the prefix will be changed to the lower_underscore version of the plugin name. By providing a prefix you can override this behavior.

  • namedConfig() public static
    Gets the current named parameter configuration values.
  • normalize() public static
    Normalizes a URL for purposes of comparison.
  • parse() public static
    Parses given URL string. Returns 'routing' parameters for that URL.
  • parseExtensions() public static
    Instructs the router to parse out file extensions from the URL.
  • popRequest() public static
    Pops a request off of the request stack. Used when doing requestAction
  • prefixes() public static
    Returns the list of prefixes used in connected routes
  • promote() public static
    Promote a route (by default, the last one added) to the beginning of the list
  • queryString() public static
    Generates a well-formed querystring from $q
  • redirect() public static
    Connects a new redirection Route in the router.
  • reload() public static

    Reloads default Router settings. Resets all class variables and removes all connected routes.

  • requestRoute() public static
    Returns the route matching the current request URL.
  • resourceMap() public static
    Resource map getter & setter.
  • reverse() public static
    Reverses a parsed parameter array into a string.
  • reverseToArray() public static
    Reverses a parsed parameter array into an array.
  • setExtensions() public static
    Set/add valid extensions.
  • setRequestInfo() public static

    Takes parameter and path information back from the Dispatcher, sets these parameters as the current request parameters that are merged with URL arrays created later in the request.

  • stripPlugin() public static
    Removes the plugin name from the base URL.
  • url() public static
    Finds URL for specified action.

Method Detail

_handleNoRoute()source protected static

_handleNoRoute( array $url )

A special fallback method that handles URL arrays that cannot match any defined routes.

Parameters

array $url
A URL that didn't match any routes

Returns

string
A generated URL for the array

See

Router::url()

_loadRoutes()source protected static

_loadRoutes( )

Loads route configuration

_parseExtension()source protected static

_parseExtension( string $url )

Parses a file extension out of a URL, if Router::parseExtensions() is enabled.

Parameters

string $url
URL.

Returns

array
Returns an array containing the altered URL and the parsed extension.

_setPrefixes()source protected static

_setPrefixes( )

Sets the Routing prefixes.

_validateRouteClass()source protected static

_validateRouteClass( string $routeClass )

Validates that the passed route class exists and is a subclass of CakeRoute

Parameters

string $routeClass
Route class name

Returns

string

Throws

RouterException

connect()source public static

connect( string $route , array $defaults array() , array $options array() )

Connects a new Route in the router.

Routes are a way of connecting request URLs to objects in your application. At their core routes are a set of regular expressions that are used to match requests to destinations.

Examples:

Router::connect('/:controller/:action/*');

The first token ':controller' will be used as a controller name while the second is used as the action name. the '/*' syntax makes this route greedy in that it will match requests like /posts/index as well as requests like /posts/edit/1/foo/bar.

Router::connect('/home-page', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'display', 'home'));

The above shows the use of route parameter defaults, and providing routing parameters for a static route.

Router::connect(
  '/:lang/:controller/:action/:id',
  array(),
  array('id' => '[0-9]+', 'lang' => '[a-z]{3}')
);

Shows connecting a route with custom route parameters as well as providing patterns for those parameters. Patterns for routing parameters do not need capturing groups, as one will be added for each route params.

$defaults is merged with the results of parsing the request URL to form the final routing destination and its parameters. This destination is expressed as an associative array by Router. See the output of Router::parse().

$options offers four 'special' keys. pass, named, persist and routeClass have special meaning in the $options array.

  • pass is used to define which of the routed parameters should be shifted into the pass array. Adding a parameter to pass will remove it from the regular route array. Ex. 'pass' => array('slug')
  • persist is used to define which route parameters should be automatically included when generating new URLs. You can override persistent parameters by redefining them in a URL or remove them by setting the parameter to false. Ex. 'persist' => array('lang')
  • routeClass is used to extend and change how individual routes parse requests and handle reverse routing, via a custom routing class. Ex. 'routeClass' => 'SlugRoute'
  • named is used to configure named parameters at the route level. This key uses the same options as Router::connectNamed()

You can also add additional conditions for matching routes to the $defaults array. The following conditions can be used:

  • [type] Only match requests for specific content types.
  • [method] Only match requests with specific HTTP verbs.
  • [server] Only match when $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] matches the given value.

Example of using the [method] condition:

Router::connect('/tasks', array('controller' => 'tasks', 'action' => 'index', '[method]' => 'GET'));

The above route will only be matched for GET requests. POST requests will fail to match this route.

Parameters

string $route
A string describing the template of the route
array $defaults optional array()

An array describing the default route parameters. These parameters will be used by default and can supply routing parameters that are not dynamic. See above.

array $options optional array()

An array matching the named elements in the route to regular expressions which that element should match. Also contains additional parameters such as which routed parameters should be shifted into the passed arguments, supplying patterns for routing parameters and supplying the name of a custom routing class.

Returns

array
Array of routes

Throws

RouterException

See

Router::$routes
parse().

connectNamed()source public static

connectNamed( array $named , array $options array() )

Specifies what named parameters CakePHP should be parsing out of incoming URLs. By default CakePHP will parse every named parameter out of incoming URLs. However, if you want to take more control over how named parameters are parsed you can use one of the following setups:

Do not parse any named parameters:

Router::connectNamed(false); ```

Parse only default parameters used for CakePHP's pagination:

Router::connectNamed(false, array('default' => true));

Parse only the page parameter if its value is a number:

Router::connectNamed(array('page' => '[\d]+'), array('default' => false, 'greedy' => false));

Parse only the page parameter no matter what.

Router::connectNamed(array('page'), array('default' => false, 'greedy' => false));

Parse only the page parameter if the current action is 'index'.

Router::connectNamed( array('page' => array('action' => 'index')), array('default' => false, 'greedy' => false) );

Parse only the page parameter if the current action is 'index' and the controller is 'pages'.

Router::connectNamed( array('page' => array('action' => 'index', 'controller' => 'pages')), array('default' => false, 'greedy' => false) ); ```

Options

  • greedy Setting this to true will make Router parse all named params. Setting it to false will parse only the connected named params.
  • default Set this to true to merge in the default set of named parameters.
  • reset Set to true to clear existing rules and start fresh.
  • separator Change the string used to separate the key & value in a named parameter. Defaults to :

Parameters

array $named

A list of named parameters. Key value pairs are accepted where values are either regex strings to match, or arrays as seen above.

array $options optional array()
Allows to control all settings: separator, greedy, reset, default

Returns

array

currentRoute()source public static

currentRoute( )

Returns the route matching the current request (useful for requestAction traces)

Returns

CakeRoute
Matching route object.

defaultRouteClass()source public static

defaultRouteClass( string $routeClass null )

Set the default route class to use or return the current one

Parameters

string $routeClass optional null
The route class to set as default.

Returns

string|null
The default route class.

Throws

RouterException

extensions()source public static

extensions( )

Get the list of extensions that can be parsed by Router.

To initially set extensions use Router::parseExtensions() To add more see setExtensions()

Returns

array
Array of extensions Router is configured to parse.

fullBaseUrl()source public static

fullBaseUrl( string $base null )

Sets the full base URL that will be used as a prefix for generating fully qualified URLs for this application. If no parameters are passed, the currently configured value is returned.

Note:

If you change the configuration value App.fullBaseUrl during runtime and expect the router to produce links using the new setting, you are required to call this method passing such value again.

Parameters

string $base optional null

the prefix for URLs generated containing the domain. For example: http://example.com

Returns

string

getNamedExpressions()source public static

getNamedExpressions( )

Gets the named route elements for use in app/Config/routes.php

Returns

array
Named route elements

See

Router::$_namedExpressions

getParam()source public static

getParam( string $name 'controller' , boolean $current false )

Gets URL parameter by name

Parameters

string $name optional 'controller'
Parameter name
boolean $current optional false
Current parameter, useful when using requestAction

Returns

string|null
Parameter value

getParams()source public static

getParams( boolean $current false )

Gets parameter information

Parameters

boolean $current optional false
Get current request parameter, useful when using requestAction

Returns

array
Parameter information

getPaths()source public static

getPaths( boolean $current false )

Gets path information

Parameters

boolean $current optional false
Current parameter, useful when using requestAction

Returns

array

getRequest()source public static

getRequest( boolean $current false )

Gets the current request object, or the first one.

Parameters

boolean $current optional false
True to get the current request object, or false to get the first one.

Returns

CakeRequest|null
Null if stack is empty.

mapResources()source public static

mapResources( string|array $controller , array $options array() )

Creates REST resource routes for the given controller(s). When creating resource routes for a plugin, by default the prefix will be changed to the lower_underscore version of the plugin name. By providing a prefix you can override this behavior.

Options:

  • 'id' - The regular expression fragment to use when matching IDs. By default, matches integer values and UUIDs.
  • 'prefix' - URL prefix to use for the generated routes. Defaults to '/'.
  • 'connectOptions' – Custom options for connecting the routes.

Parameters

string|array $controller
A controller name or array of controller names (i.e. "Posts" or "ListItems")
array $options optional array()
Options to use when generating REST routes

Returns

array
Array of mapped resources

namedConfig()source public static

namedConfig( )

Gets the current named parameter configuration values.

Returns

array

See

Router::$_namedConfig

normalize()source public static

normalize( array|string $url '/' )

Normalizes a URL for purposes of comparison.

Will strip the base path off and replace any double /'s. It will not unify the casing and underscoring of the input value.

Parameters

array|string $url optional '/'
URL to normalize Either an array or a string URL.

Returns

string
Normalized URL

parse()source public static

parse( string $url )

Parses given URL string. Returns 'routing' parameters for that URL.

Parameters

string $url
URL to be parsed

Returns

array
Parsed elements from URL

parseExtensions()source public static

parseExtensions( )

Instructs the router to parse out file extensions from the URL.

For example, http://example.com/posts.rss would yield a file extension of "rss". The file extension itself is made available in the controller as $this->params['ext'], and is used by the RequestHandler component to automatically switch to alternate layouts and templates, and load helpers corresponding to the given content, i.e. RssHelper. Switching layouts and helpers requires that the chosen extension has a defined mime type in CakeResponse

A list of valid extension can be passed to this method, i.e. Router::parseExtensions('rss', 'xml'); If no parameters are given, anything after the first . (dot) after the last / in the URL will be parsed, excluding querystring parameters (i.e. ?q=...).

See

RequestHandler::startup()

popRequest()source public static

popRequest( )

Pops a request off of the request stack. Used when doing requestAction

Returns

CakeRequest
The request removed from the stack.

See

Router::setRequestInfo()
Object::requestAction()

prefixes()source public static

prefixes( )

Returns the list of prefixes used in connected routes

Returns

array
A list of prefixes used in connected routes

promote()source public static

promote( integer $which null )

Promote a route (by default, the last one added) to the beginning of the list

Parameters

integer $which optional null

A zero-based array index representing the route to move. For example, if 3 routes have been added, the last route would be 2.

Returns

boolean
Returns false if no route exists at the position specified by $which.

queryString()source public static

queryString( string|array $q , array $extra array() , boolean $escape false )

Generates a well-formed querystring from $q

Parameters

string|array $q

Query string Either a string of already compiled query string arguments or an array of arguments to convert into a query string.

array $extra optional array()
Extra querystring parameters.
boolean $escape optional false
Whether or not to use escaped &

Returns

array

redirect()source public static

redirect( string $route , array $url , array $options array() )

Connects a new redirection Route in the router.

Redirection routes are different from normal routes as they perform an actual header redirection if a match is found. The redirection can occur within your application or redirect to an outside location.

Examples:

Router::redirect('/home/*', array('controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'view'), array('persist' => true));

Redirects /home/* to /posts/view and passes the parameters to /posts/view. Using an array as the redirect destination allows you to use other routes to define where a URL string should be redirected to.

Router::redirect('/posts/*', 'http://google.com', array('status' => 302));

Redirects /posts/* to http://google.com with a HTTP status of 302

Options:

  • status Sets the HTTP status (default 301)
  • persist Passes the params to the redirected route, if it can. This is useful with greedy routes, routes that end in * are greedy. As you can remap URLs and not loose any passed/named args.

Parameters

string $route
A string describing the template of the route
array $url
A URL to redirect to. Can be a string or a CakePHP array-based URL
array $options optional array()

An array matching the named elements in the route to regular expressions which that element should match. Also contains additional parameters such as which routed parameters should be shifted into the passed arguments. As well as supplying patterns for routing parameters.

Returns

array
Array of routes

See

Router::$routes

reload()source public static

reload( )

Reloads default Router settings. Resets all class variables and removes all connected routes.

requestRoute()source public static

requestRoute( )

Returns the route matching the current request URL.

Returns

CakeRoute
Matching route object.

resourceMap()source public static

resourceMap( array $resourceMap null )

Resource map getter & setter.

Parameters

array $resourceMap optional null
Resource map

Returns

mixed

See

Router::$_resourceMap

reverse()source public static

reverse( CakeRequest|array $params , boolean $full false )

Reverses a parsed parameter array into a string.

Works similarly to Router::url(), but since parsed URL's contain additional 'pass' and 'named' as well as 'url.url' keys. Those keys need to be specially handled in order to reverse a params array into a string URL.

This will strip out 'autoRender', 'bare', 'requested', and 'return' param names as those are used for CakePHP internals and should not normally be part of an output URL.

Parameters

CakeRequest|array $params
The params array or CakeRequest object that needs to be reversed.
boolean $full optional false

Set to true to include the full URL including the protocol when reversing the URL.

Returns

string
The string that is the reversed result of the array

reverseToArray()source public static

reverseToArray( CakeRequest|array $params )

Reverses a parsed parameter array into an array.

Works similarly to Router::url(), but since parsed URL's contain additional 'pass' and 'named' as well as 'url.url' keys. Those keys need to be specially handled in order to reverse a params array into a string URL.

This will strip out 'autoRender', 'bare', 'requested', and 'return' param names as those are used for CakePHP internals and should not normally be part of an output URL.

Parameters

CakeRequest|array $params
The params array or CakeRequest object that needs to be reversed.

Returns

array
The URL array ready to be used for redirect or HTML link.

setExtensions()source public static

setExtensions( array $extensions , boolean $merge true )

Set/add valid extensions.

To have the extensions parsed you still need to call Router::parseExtensions()

Parameters

array $extensions
List of extensions to be added as valid extension
boolean $merge optional true
Default true will merge extensions. Set to false to override current extensions

Returns

array

setRequestInfo()source public static

setRequestInfo( CakeRequest|array $request )

Takes parameter and path information back from the Dispatcher, sets these parameters as the current request parameters that are merged with URL arrays created later in the request.

Nested requests will create a stack of requests. You can remove requests using Router::popRequest(). This is done automatically when using CakeObject::requestAction().

Will accept either a CakeRequest object or an array of arrays. Support for accepting arrays may be removed in the future.

Parameters

CakeRequest|array $request
Parameters and path information or a CakeRequest object.

stripPlugin()source public static

stripPlugin( string $base , string $plugin null )

Removes the plugin name from the base URL.

Parameters

string $base
Base URL
string $plugin optional null
Plugin name

Returns

string
base URL with plugin name removed if present

url()source public static

url( string|array $url null , boolean|array $full false )

Finds URL for specified action.

Returns a URL pointing to a combination of controller and action. Param $url can be:

  • Empty - the method will find address to actual controller/action.
  • '/' - the method will find base URL of application.
  • A combination of controller/action - the method will find URL for it.

There are a few 'special' parameters that can change the final URL string that is generated

  • base - Set to false to remove the base path from the generated URL. If your application is not in the root directory, this can be used to generate URLs that are 'cake relative'. cake relative URLs are required when using requestAction.
  • ? - Takes an array of query string parameters
  • # - Allows you to set URL hash fragments.
  • full_base - If true the Router::fullBaseUrl() value will be prepended to generated URLs.

Parameters

string|array $url optional null

Cake-relative URL, like "/products/edit/92" or "/presidents/elect/4" or an array specifying any of the following: 'controller', 'action', and/or 'plugin', in addition to named arguments (keyed array elements), and standard URL arguments (indexed array elements)

boolean|array $full optional false

If (bool) true, the full base URL will be prepended to the result. If an array accepts the following keys - escape - used when making URLs embedded in html escapes query string '&' - full - if true the full base URL will be prepended.

Returns

string
Full translated URL with base path.

Properties detail

$_currentRoutesource

protected static array

The route matching the URL of the current request

array()

$_fullBaseUrlsource

protected static string

Contains the base string that will be applied to all generated URLs For example https://example.com

$_initialStatesource

protected static array

Initial state is populated the first time reload() is called which is at the bottom of this file. This is a cheat as get_class_vars() returns the value of static vars even if they have changed.

array()

$_namedConfigsource

protected static string

Stores all information necessary to decide what named arguments are parsed under what conditions.

array(
    'default' => array('page', 'fields', 'order', 'limit', 'recursive', 'sort', 'direction', 'step'),
    'greedyNamed' => true,
    'separator' => ':',
    'rules' => false,
)

$_namedExpressionssource

protected static array

Named expressions

array(
    'Action' => Router::ACTION,
    'Year' => Router::YEAR,
    'Month' => Router::MONTH,
    'Day' => Router::DAY,
    'ID' => Router::ID,
    'UUID' => Router::UUID
)

$_parseExtensionssource

protected static boolean

Directive for Router to parse out file extensions for mapping to Content-types.

false

$_prefixessource

protected static array

List of action prefixes used in connected routes. Includes admin prefix

array()

$_requestssource

protected static array

Maintains the request object stack for the current request. This will contain more than one request object when requestAction is used.

array()

$_resourceMapsource

protected static array

Default HTTP request method => controller action map.

array(
    array('action' => 'index', 'method' => 'GET', 'id' => false),
    array('action' => 'view', 'method' => 'GET', 'id' => true),
    array('action' => 'add', 'method' => 'POST', 'id' => false),
    array('action' => 'edit', 'method' => 'PUT', 'id' => true),
    array('action' => 'delete', 'method' => 'DELETE', 'id' => true),
    array('action' => 'edit', 'method' => 'POST', 'id' => true)
)

$_resourceMappedsource

protected static array

List of resource-mapped controllers

array()

$_routeClasssource

protected static string

Default route class to use

'CakeRoute'

$_validExtensionssource

protected static array

List of valid extensions to parse from a URL. If null, any extension is allowed.

array()

$initializedsource

public static boolean

Have routes been loaded

false

$routessource

public static array

Array of routes connected with Router::connect()

array()

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