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

ACTION ¶

'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

MONTH ¶

'0[1-9]|1[012]'
string

UUID ¶

'[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

YEAR ¶

'[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() 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() protected static ¶

_loadRoutes( )

Loads route configuration

_parseExtension() 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() protected static ¶

_setPrefixes( )

Sets the Routing prefixes.

_validateRouteClass() 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() 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() 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() public static ¶

currentRoute( )

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

Returns

CakeRoute
Matching route object.

defaultRouteClass() 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() 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() 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() public static ¶

getNamedExpressions( )

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

Returns

array
Named route elements

See

Router::$_namedExpressions

getParam() 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() 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() public static ¶

getPaths( boolean $current = false )

Gets path information

Parameters

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

Returns

array

getRequest() 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() 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() public static ¶

namedConfig( )

Gets the current named parameter configuration values.

Returns

array

See

Router::$_namedConfig

normalize() 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() 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() 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() 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() public static ¶

prefixes( )

Returns the list of prefixes used in connected routes

Returns

array
A list of prefixes used in connected routes

promote() 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() 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

string|null

redirect() 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() public static ¶

reload( )

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

requestRoute() public static ¶

requestRoute( )

Returns the route matching the current request URL.

Returns

CakeRoute
Matching route object.

resourceMap() public static ¶

resourceMap( array $resourceMap = null )

Resource map getter & setter.

Parameters

array $resourceMap optional null: Resource map

Returns

mixed

See

Router::$_resourceMap

reverse() 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() public static ¶

reverseToArray( CakeRequest|array $params )

Reverses a parsed parameter array into an array.

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() 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() 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() 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() 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

`$_currentRoute` ¶

protected static array

The route matching the URL of the current request

array()

`$_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.

array()

`$_namedConfig` ¶

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,
)

`$_namedExpressions` ¶

protected static array

Named expressions

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

`$_parseExtensions` ¶

protected static boolean

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

false

`$_prefixes` ¶

protected static array

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

array()

`$_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.

array()

`$_resourceMap` ¶

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)
)

`$_resourceMapped` ¶

protected static array

List of resource-mapped controllers

array()

`$_routeClass` ¶

protected static string

Default route class to use

'CakeRoute'

`$_validExtensions` ¶

protected static array

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

array()

`$initialized` ¶

public static boolean

Have routes been loaded

false

`$routes` ¶

public static array

Array of routes connected with Router::connect()

array()

Packages

Classes

Class Router

Connecting routes

Named parameters

Constants summary

Properties summary

Method Summary

_handleNoRoute() protected static

_loadRoutes() protected static

_parseExtension() protected static

_setPrefixes() protected static

_validateRouteClass() protected static

connect() public static

connectNamed() public static

currentRoute() public static

defaultRouteClass() public static

extensions() public static

fullBaseUrl() public static

getNamedExpressions() public static

getParam() public static

getParams() public static

getPaths() public static

getRequest() public static

mapResources() public static

namedConfig() public static

normalize() public static

parse() public static

parseExtensions() public static

popRequest() public static

prefixes() public static

promote() public static

queryString() public static

redirect() public static

reload() public static

requestRoute() public static

resourceMap() public static

reverse() public static

reverseToArray() public static

setExtensions() public static

setRequestInfo() public static

stripPlugin() public static

url() public static

Method Detail

_handleNoRoute() protected static ¶

Parameters

Returns

See

_loadRoutes() protected static ¶

_parseExtension() protected static ¶

Parameters

Returns

_setPrefixes() protected static ¶

_validateRouteClass() protected static ¶

Parameters

Returns

Throws

connect() public static ¶

Parameters

Returns

Throws

See

connectNamed() public static ¶

Options

Parameters

Returns

currentRoute() public static ¶

Returns

defaultRouteClass() public static ¶

Parameters

Returns

Throws

extensions() public static ¶

Returns

fullBaseUrl() public static ¶

Note:

Parameters

Returns

getNamedExpressions() public static ¶

Returns