--- title: "Mapping routes using AltoRouter" layout: default ---

Using AltoRouter Mapping Routes

By now, you should have rewritten al requests to be handled by a single file in which you created an AltoRouter instance.

To map your routes, use the map() method. The following example maps all GET / requests.

{% highlight php startinline %} $router->map( 'GET', '/', 'render_home', 'home' ); {% endhighlight %}

The map() method accepts the following parameters.

$method (string)
This is a pipe-delimited string of the accepted HTTP requests methods.

Example: GET|POST|PATCH|PUT|DELETE

$route (string)
This is the route pattern to match against. This can be a plain string, one of the predefined regex filters or a custom regex. Custom regexes must start with @.

Examples:

Route	Example Match	Variables
`/contact/`	`/contact/`
`/users/[i:id]/`	`/users/12/`	`$id: 12`
`/[a:c]/[a:a]?/[i:id]?`	`/controller/action/21`	`$c: "controller", $a: "action", $id: 21`

$target (mixed)
As AltoRouter leaves handling routes up to you, this can be anything.

Example using a function callback:
function() { ... }

Example using a controller#action string:
UserController#showDetails

$name (string, optional)
If you want to use reversed routing, specify a name parameter so you can later generate URL's using this route.

Example:
user_details

Example Mapping

{% highlight php startinline%} // map homepage using callable $router->map( 'GET', '/', function() { require __DIR__ . '/views/home.php'; }); // map users details page using controller#action string $router->map( 'GET', '/users/[i:id]/', 'UserController#showDetails' ); // map contact form handler using function name string $router->map( 'POST', '/contact/', 'handleContactForm' ); {% endhighlight %}

For quickly adding multiple routes, you can use the addRoutes method. This method accepts an array or any kind of traversable.

$router->addRoutes(array(
  array('PATCH','/users/[i:id]', 'users#update', 'update_user'),
  array('DELETE','/users/[i:id]', 'users#delete', 'delete_user')
));

Match Types

You can use the following limits on your named parameters. AltoRouter will create the correct regexes for you.

{% highlight php startinline %} * // Match all request URIs [i] // Match an integer [i:id] // Match an integer as 'id' [a:action] // Match alphanumeric characters as 'action' [h:key] // Match hexadecimal characters as 'key' [:action] // Match anything up to the next / or end of the URI as 'action' [create|edit:action] // Match either 'create' or 'edit' as 'action' [*] // Catch all (lazy, stops at the next trailing slash) [*:trailing] // Catch all as 'trailing' (lazy) [**:trailing] // Catch all (possessive - will match the rest of the URI) .[:format]? // Match an optional parameter 'format' - a / or . before the block is also optional {% endhighlight %}

The character before the colon (the 'match type') is a shortcut for one of the following regular expressions

{% highlight php startinline %} 'i' => '[0-9]++' 'a' => '[0-9A-Za-z]++' 'h' => '[0-9A-Fa-f]++' '*' => '.+?' '**' => '.++' '' => '[^/\.]++' {% endhighlight %}

You can register your own match types using the addMatchTypes() method.

{% highlight php startinline %} $router->addMatchTypes(array('cId' => '[a-zA-Z]{2}[0-9](?:_[0-9]++)?')); {% endhighlight %}

Once your routes are all mapped you can start matching requests and continue processing the request.

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