Welcome to the Cookbook

Before you learn about configuring your own routes, you should know that CakePHP comes configured with a default set of routes. CakePHP’s default routing will get you pretty far in any application. You can access an action directly via the URL by putting its name in the request. You can also pass parameters to your controller actions using the URL.

    URL pattern default routes: 
    http://example.com/controller/action/param1/param2/param3

The URL /posts/view maps to the view() action of the PostsController, and /products/view_clearance maps to the view_clearance() action of the ProductsController. If no action is specified in the URL, the index() method is assumed.

The default routing setup also allows you to pass parameters to your actions using the URL. A request for /posts/view/25 would be equivalent to calling view(25) on the PostsController, for example.

Passed arguments are additional arguments or path segments that are used when making a request. They are often used to pass parameters to your controller methods.

http://localhost/calendars/view/recent/mark

In the above example, both recent and mark are passed arguments to CalendarsController::view(). Passed arguments are given to your controllers in three ways. First as arguments to the action method called, and secondly they are available in $this->params['pass'] as a numerically indexed array. Lastly there is $this->passedArgs available in the same way as the second one. When using custom routes you can force particular parameters to go into the passed arguments as well. See passing parameters to an action for more information.

Arguments to the action method called

CalendarsController extends AppController{
    function view($arg1, $arg2){
        debug($arg1);
        debug($arg2);
        debug(func_get_args());
    }
}

1. CalendarsController extends AppController{
2. function view($arg1, $arg2){
3. debug($arg1);
4. debug($arg2);
5. debug(func_get_args());
6. }
7. }

For this, you will have...

recent

mark

Array
(
    [0] => recent
    [1] => mark
)

$this->params['pass'] as a numerically indexed array

debug($this->params['pass'])

1. debug($this->params['pass'])

For this, you will have...

Array
(
    [0] => recent
    [1] => mark
)

$this->passedArgs as a numerically indexed array

debug($this->passedArgs)

1. debug($this->passedArgs)

Array
(
    [0] => recent
    [1] => mark
)

$this->passedArgs may also contain Named parameters as a named array mixed with Passed arguments.

You can name parameters and send their values using the URL. A request for /posts/view/title:first/category:general would result in a call to the view() action of the PostsController. In that action, you’d find the values of the title and category parameters inside $this->passedArgs[‘title’] and $this->passedArgs[‘category’] respectively. You can also access named parameters from $this->params['named']. $this->params['named'] contains an array of named parameters indexed by their name.

Some summarizing examples for default routes might prove helpful.

URL to controller action mapping using default routes:  
    
URL: /monkeys/jump
Mapping: MonkeysController->jump();
 
URL: /products
Mapping: ProductsController->index();
 
URL: /tasks/view/45
Mapping: TasksController->view(45);
 
URL: /donations/view/recent/2001
Mapping: DonationsController->view('recent', '2001');

URL: /contents/view/chapter:models/section:associations
Mapping: ContentsController->view();
$this->passedArgs['chapter'] = 'models';
$this->passedArgs['section'] = 'associations';
$this->params['named']['chapter'] = 'models';
$this->params['named']['section'] = 'associations';

When making custom routes, a common pitfall is that using named parameters will break your custom routes. In order to solve this you should inform the Router about which parameters are intended to be named parameters. Without this knowledge the Router is unable to determine whether named parameters are intended to actually be named parameters or routed parameters, and defaults to assuming you intended them to be routed parameters. To connect named parameters in the router use Router::connectNamed().

Router::connectNamed(array('chapter', 'section'));

1. Router::connectNamed(array('chapter', 'section'));

Will ensure that your chapter and section parameters reverse route correctly.

Defining your own routes allows you to define how your application will respond to a given URL. Define your own routes in the /app/config/routes.php file using the Router::connect() method.

The connect() method takes up to three parameters: the URL you wish to match, the default values for your route elements, and regular expression rules to help the router match elements in the URL.

The basic format for a route definition is:

Router::connect(
    'URL',
    array('paramName' => 'defaultValue'),
    array('paramName' => 'matchingRegex')
)

1. Router::connect(
2. 'URL',
3. array('paramName' => 'defaultValue'),
4. array('paramName' => 'matchingRegex')
5. )

The first parameter is used to tell the router what sort of URL you're trying to control. The URL is a normal slash delimited string, but can also contain a wildcard (*) or route elements (variable names prefixed with a colon). Using a wildcard tells the router what sorts of URLs you want to match, and specifying route elements allows you to gather parameters for your controller actions.

Once you've specified a URL, you use the last two parameters of connect() to tell CakePHP what to do with a request once it has been matched. The second parameter is an associative array. The keys of the array should be named after the route elements in the URL, or the default elements: :controller, :action, and :plugin. The values in the array are the default values for those keys. Let's look at some basic examples before we start using the third parameter of connect().

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

1. Router::connect(
2. '/pages/*',
3. array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'display')
4. );

This route is found in the routes.php file distributed with CakePHP (line 40). This route matches any URL starting with /pages/ and hands it to the display() method of the PagesController(); The request /pages/products would be mapped to PagesController->display('products'), for example.

Router::connect(
    '/government',
    array('controller' => 'products', 'action' => 'display', 5)
);

1. Router::connect(
2. '/government',
3. array('controller' => 'products', 'action' => 'display', 5)
4. );

This second example shows how you can use the second parameter of connect() to define default parameters. If you built a site that features products for different categories of customers, you might consider creating a route. This allows you link to /government rather than /products/display/5.

Another common use for the Router is to define an "alias" for a controller. Let's say that instead of accessing our regular URL at /users/someAction/5, we'd like to be able to access it by /cooks/someAction/5. The following route easily takes care of that:

Router::connect(
    '/cooks/:action/*', array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'index')
);

1. Router::connect(
2. '/cooks/:action/*', array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'index')
3. );

This is telling the Router that any url beginning with /cooks/ should be sent to the users controller.

When generating urls, routes are used too. Using array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'someAction', 5) as a url will output /cooks/someAction/5 if the above route is the first match found

If you are planning to use custom named arguments with your route, you have to make the router aware of it using the Router::connectNamed function. So if you want the above route to match urls like /cooks/someAction/type:chef we do:

Router::connectNamed(array('type'));
Router::connect(
    '/cooks/:action/*', array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'index')
);

1. Router::connectNamed(array('type'));
2. Router::connect(
3. '/cooks/:action/*', array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'index')
4. );

You can specify your own route elements, doing so gives you the power to define places in the URL where parameters for controller actions should lie. When a request is made, the values for these route elements are found in $this->params of the controller. This is different than named parameters are handled, so note the difference: named parameters (/controller/action/name:value) are found in $this->passedArgs, whereas custom route element data is found in $this->params. When you define a custom route element, you also need to specify a regular expression - this tells CakePHP how to know if the URL is correctly formed or not.

Router::connect(
    '/:controller/:id',
    array('action' => 'view'),
    array('id' => '[0-9]+')
);

1. Router::connect(
2. '/:controller/:id',
3. array('action' => 'view'),
4. array('id' => '[0-9]+')
5. );

This simple example illustrates how to create a quick way to view models from any controller by crafting a URL that looks like /controllername/id. The URL provided to connect() specifies two route elements: :controller and :id. The :controller element is a CakePHP default route element, so the router knows how to match and identify controller names in URLs. The :id element is a custom route element, and must be further clarified by specifying a matching regular expression in the third parameter of connect(). This tells CakePHP how to recognize the ID in the URL as opposed to something else, such as an action name.

Once this route has been defined, requesting /apples/5 is the same as requesting /apples/view/5. Both would call the view() method of the ApplesController. Inside the view() method, you would need to access the passed ID at $this->params['id'].

If you have a single controller in your application and you want that controller name does not appear in url, e.g have urls like /demo instead of /home/demo:

 Router::connect('/:action', array('controller' => 'home')); 

1. Router::connect('/:action', array('controller' => 'home'));

One more example, and you'll be a routing pro.

Router::connect(
    '/:controller/:year/:month/:day',
    array('action' => 'index', 'day' => null),
    array(
        'year' => '[12][0-9]{3}',
        'month' => '0[1-9]|1[012]',
        'day' => '0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01]'
    )
);

1. Router::connect(
2. '/:controller/:year/:month/:day',
3. array('action' => 'index', 'day' => null),
4. array(
5. 'year' => '[12][0-9]{3}',
6. 'month' => '0[1-9]|1[012]',
7. 'day' => '0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01]'
8. )
9. );

This is rather involved, but shows how powerful routes can really become. The URL supplied has four route elements. The first is familiar to us: it's a default route element that tells CakePHP to expect a controller name.

Next, we specify some default values. Regardless of the controller, we want the index() action to be called. We set the day parameter (the fourth element in the URL) to null to flag it as being optional.

Finally, we specify some regular expressions that will match years, months and days in numerical form. Note that parenthesis (grouping) are not supported in the regular expressions. You can still specify alternates, as above, but not grouped with parenthesis.

Once defined, this route will match /articles/2007/02/01, /posts/2004/11/16, and /products/2001/05 (as defined, the day parameter is optional as it has a default), handing the requests to the index() actions of their respective controllers, with the date parameters in $this->params.

Assuming your action was defined like this and you want to access the arguments using $articleID instead of $this->params['id'], just add an extra array in the 3rd parameter of Router::connect().

// some_controller.php
function view($articleID = null, $slug = null) {
    // some code here...
}

// routes.php
Router::connect(
    // E.g. /blog/3-CakePHP_Rocks
    '/blog/:id-:slug',
    array('controller' => 'blog', 'action' => 'view'),
    array(
        // order matters since this will simply map ":id" to $articleID in your action
        'pass' => array('id', 'slug'),
        'id' => '[0-9]+'
    )
);

1. // some_controller.php
2. function view($articleID = null, $slug = null) {
3. // some code here...
4. }
5. // routes.php
6. Router::connect(
7. // E.g. /blog/3-CakePHP_Rocks
8. '/blog/:id-:slug',
9. array('controller' => 'blog', 'action' => 'view'),
10. array(
11. // order matters since this will simply map ":id" to $articleID in your action
12. 'pass' => array('id', 'slug'),
13. 'id' => '[0-9]+'
14. )
15. );

And now, thanks to the reverse routing capabilities, you can pass in the url array like below and Cake will know how to form the URL as defined in the routes.

// view.ctp
// this will return a link to /blog/3-CakePHP_Rocks
<?php echo $html->link('CakePHP Rocks', array(
    'controller' => 'blog',
    'action' => 'view',
    'id' => 3,
    'slug' => Inflector::slug('CakePHP Rocks')
)); ?>

1. // view.ctp
2. // this will return a link to /blog/3-CakePHP_Rocks
3. <?php echo $html->link('CakePHP Rocks', array(
4. 'controller' => 'blog',
5. 'action' => 'view',
6. 'id' => 3,
7. 'slug' => Inflector::slug('CakePHP Rocks')
8. )); ?>

Many applications require an administration section where privileged users can make changes. This is often done through a special URL such as /admin/users/edit/5. In CakePHP, prefix routing can be enabled from within the core configuration file by setting the prefixes with Routing.prefixes. Note that prefixes, although related to the router, are to be configured in /app/config/core.php

Configure::write('Routing.prefixes', array('admin'));

1. Configure::write('Routing.prefixes', array('admin'));

In your controller, any action with an admin_ prefix will be called. Using our users example, accessing the url /admin/users/edit/5 would call the method admin_edit of our UsersController passing 5 as the first parameter. The view file used would be app/views/users/admin_edit.ctp

You can map the url /admin to your admin_index action of pages controller using following route

Router::connect('/admin', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'index', 'admin' => true)); 

1. Router::connect('/admin', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'index', 'admin' => true));

You can configure the Router to use multiple prefixes too. By adding additional values to Routing.prefixes. If you set

Configure::write('Routing.prefixes', array('admin', 'manager'));

1. Configure::write('Routing.prefixes', array('admin', 'manager'));

Cake will automatically generate routes for both the admin and manager prefixes. Each configured prefix will have the following routes generated for it.

$this->connect("/{$prefix}/:plugin/:controller", array('action' => 'index', 'prefix' => $prefix, $prefix => true));
$this->connect("/{$prefix}/:plugin/:controller/:action/*", array('prefix' => $prefix, $prefix => true));
Router::connect("/{$prefix}/:controller", array('action' => 'index', 'prefix' => $prefix, $prefix => true));
Router::connect("/{$prefix}/:controller/:action/*", array('prefix' => $prefix, $prefix => true));

1. $this->connect("/{$prefix}/:plugin/:controller", array('action' => 'index', 'prefix' => $prefix, $prefix => true));
2. $this->connect("/{$prefix}/:plugin/:controller/:action/*", array('prefix' => $prefix, $prefix => true));
3. Router::connect("/{$prefix}/:controller", array('action' => 'index', 'prefix' => $prefix, $prefix => true));
4. Router::connect("/{$prefix}/:controller/:action/*", array('prefix' => $prefix, $prefix => true));

Much like admin routing all prefix actions should be prefixed with the prefix name. So /manager/posts/add would map to PostsController::manager_add().

When using prefix routes its important to remember, using the HTML helper to build your links will help maintain the prefix calls. Here's how to build this link using the HTML helper:

// Go into a prefixed route.
echo $html->link('Manage posts', array('manager' => true, 'controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'add'));

// leave a prefix
echo $html->link('View Post', array('manager' => false, 'controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'view', 5));

1. // Go into a prefixed route.
2. echo $html->link('Manage posts', array('manager' => true, 'controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'add'));
3. // leave a prefix
4. echo $html->link('View Post', array('manager' => false, 'controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'view', 5));

Plugin routing uses the plugin key. You can create links that point to a plugin, but adding the plugin key to your url array.

echo $html->link('New todo', array('plugin' => 'todo', 'controller' => 'todo_items', 'action' => 'create'));

1. echo $html->link('New todo', array('plugin' => 'todo', 'controller' => 'todo_items', 'action' => 'create'));

Conversely if the active request is a plugin request and you want to create a link that has no plugin you can do the following.

echo $html->link('New todo', array('plugin' => null, 'controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'profile'));

1. echo $html->link('New todo', array('plugin' => null, 'controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'profile'));

By setting plugin => null you tell the Router that you want to create a link that is not part of a plugin.

To handle different file extensions with your routes, you need one extra line in your routes config file:

Router::parseExtensions('html', 'rss');

1. Router::parseExtensions('html', 'rss');

This will tell the router to remove any matching file extensions, and then parse what remains.

If you want to create a URL such as /page/title-of-page.html you would create your route as illustrated below:

	Router::connect(
		'/page/:title',
		array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'view'),
		array(
			'pass' => array('title')
		)
	);	

1. Router::connect(
2. '/page/:title',
3. array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'view'),
4. array(
5. 'pass' => array('title')
6. )
7. );

Then to create links which map back to the routes simply use:

$html->link('Link title', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'view', 'title' => Inflector::slug('text to slug', '-'), 'ext' => 'html'))

1. $html->link('Link title', array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'view', 'title' => Inflector::slug('text to slug', '-'), 'ext' => 'html'))

Custom route classes allow you to extend and change how individual routes parse requests and handle reverse routing. A route class should extend CakeRoute and implement one or both of match() and parse(). Parse is used to parse requests and match is used to handle reverse routing.

You can use a custom route class when making a route by using the routeClass option, and loading the file containing your route before trying to use it.

Router::connect(
     '/:slug', 
     array('controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'view'),
     array('routeClass' => 'SlugRoute')
);

1. Router::connect(
2. '/:slug',
3. array('controller' => 'posts', 'action' => 'view'),
4. array('routeClass' => 'SlugRoute')
5. );

This route would create an instance of SlugRoute and allow you to implement custom parameter handling