miniRouter - Fast PHP regex based router

miniRouter is a fast PHP router based on regular expressions inspired from PHRoute. It is build essentially to support RESTful APIs with simple, yet powerful, high speed interface.

Installation

Just include the miniRouter.php file in your index page and start using it.

Friendly URL

In order to handle all requests using the router, you need to redirect all requests to the page you would like to define your routes in. Create a simple .htaccess file on your root directory if you're using Apache with mod_rewrite enabled.

Options -MultiViews
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\..+$
RewriteRule .* index.php [QSA,L]

Check the examples for implementation.

Usage

Defining routes

miniRouter supports GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, PATCH and DELETE methods.

require_once('miniRouter.php');

$router = new miniRouter();

$router->get($route, $handler);     # match only get requests
$router->post($route, $handler);    # match only post requests
$router->put($route, $handler);     # match only put requests
$router->delete($route, $handler);  # match only delete requests
$router->patch($route, $handler);   # match only patch requests
$router->head($route, $handler);    # match only head requests
$router->any($route, $handler);     # match any request method

$router->start_routing();

These methods are defined by the HTTP method the route must match, and accept the route pattern and a callable handler, which can be a closure, function name or ['ClassName', 'method'] pair.

Note that the router doesn't by default echo the returned value from the handler, so if you want to send something back to the client you need to echo it, not to return it.

Regex Shortcuts

URLs can use regular expressions directly into the URL or use one of these shortcuts

{:i}  => ([0-9]+)              # numbers only
{:a}  => ([0-9A-Za-z]+)        # alphanumeric
{:h}  => ([0-9A-Fa-f]+)        # hex
{:s}  => ([a-zA-Z0-9+_\-\.]+)  # alphanumeric and + _ - . characters

Here are some examples of using regex and shortcuts in routes

  // you can pass parameters to controllers through URL using shortcuts
  $router->get('/hello/{:a}/', function($name) {
    echo "Hello, $name!";
  });

  // or you can use regular expressions directly into the URL
  $router->get('/hello-robot/(\d+)', function($robotNumber) {
    echo "Hello robot number $robotNumber!";
  });

  // URL parameters assigned to controller parameters in order
  // Note that regex can be used side by side with shortcuts
  $router->get('/hello-two/{:s}/([a-zA-Z0-9+_\-\.]+)', function($name1, $name2) {
    echo "Hello, $name1 and $name2!<br>";
  });

  // Parameters could be optional but you need to define default values for it's corresponding variables
  $router->get('/hello-anon/{:a}?/', function($name = "anonymous") {
    echo "Hello, $name!";
  });

Named Routes for Reverse Routing

Pass in an array as the first argument, where the first item is your route and the second item is a name to reference it later.

$router->get(['/user/{:a}', 'username'], function($name){
    echo 'Hello ' . $name;
});

$router->get(['/page/{:s}/{:i}', 'page'], function($slug, $id){
    echo 'You must be authenticated to see this page: ' . $id;
});

// Use the route name and pass any route parameters to redirect the browser to existing route path
// If you change your route path above, you won't need to go through your code updating any links/references to that route
$router->route('username', 'joe');
// this will redirect the browser to the path '/user/joe'

// if you passed a false value to the third argument, the browser will call the handler of the specified route without redirecting
$router->route('page', ['intro', 234], false);
// this will call the handler of the path '/page/intro/234'

Groups

Groups apply prefixes to URLS.

$router->group('/admin', function($router){

    $router->get('pages', function(){
        echo 'page management';
    });

    $router->get('products', function(){
        echo 'product management';
    });

    $router->get('orders', function(){
        echo 'order management';
    });
});

Groups can also define parameters in URL, parameters defined in a group is also passed to all group routes by default.

$router->group('/api/v{:i}', function($router, $api_version){

    $router->get('users', function($version){
        echo $version;
    });

    if ($api_version >= 2) {
        $router->get('order/{:i}', function($api_version, $order_id){
            echo $api_version;
        });
    }
});

It's good to notice that the router adds only the domain name at the beginning of any route. So if all your routes are inside a subfolder or subdirectory, group all your routes with the folder name as prefix.

Filters

You can Add a filter that must be true before a route can be accessed.

$router->filter('isLoggedIn', function(){
    if($_SESSION['logged_in']) {
      return true
    } else {
      return false
    }
});

$router->get('/user/{:a}', function($name){
    echo 'Hello ' . $name;
}, "isLoggedIn");

If the filter returned any value that if casted to boolean will be false, it will prevent the route handler from being dispatched. You can check false values from PHP booleans documentation

Filter Groups

Wrap multiple routes in a route group to apply a filter to every route defined within. You can nest groups if required.

$router->filter('auth', function(){
    if(!isset($_SESSION['user']))
    {
        header('Location: /login');
        return false;
    }
    return true;
});

$router->group('/', function($router){

    $router->get('/user/{:a}', function($name){
        echo 'Hello ' . $name;
    });

    $router->get('/page/{:i}', function($id){
        return 'You must be authenticated to see this page: ' . $id;
    });

}, "auth");

Check examples for more detailed practical use examples for miniRouter, especially for RESTful APIs.

License