simple-php-router/README.md

# [WIP] Simple PHP router
Simple, fast PHP router that is easy to get integrated and in almost any project. Heavily inspired by the Laravel router.

**Please note: this project has just been added and is still a work in progress. Please use with caution until a stable release version is available :)**

## Installation
Add the latest version pf Simple PHP Router to your ```composer.json```

```json
{
    "require": {
        "pecee/simple-php-router": "1.*"
    },
    "require-dev": {
        "pecee/simple-php-router": "1.*"
    }
}
```

## Initialising the router

In your ```index.php``` require your ```routes.php``` and call the ```routeRequest()``` method when all your custom routes has been loaded. This will trigger and do the actual routing of the requests.

This is an example of a basic ```index.php``` file:

```php
use \Pecee\SimpleRouter;

require_once 'routes.php'; // change this to whatever makes sense in your project

// The apps default namespace (so we don't have to specify it each time we use MyController@home)
$defaultControllerNamespace = 'MyWebsite\\Controller';

// Do the routing
SimpleRouter::init($defaultControllerNamespace);
```

## Adding routes
Remember the ```routes.php``` file you required in your ```index.php```? This file will contain all your custom rules for routing. 
This router is heavily inspired by the Laravel 5.* router, so anything you find in the Laravel documentation should work here as well.

### Basic example

```php
use Pecee\SimpleRouter\SimpleRouter;

/*
 * This route will match the url /v1/services/answers/1/
 
 * The middleware is just a class that renders before the 
 * Controller or callback is loaded. This is useful for stopping
 * the request, for instance if a user is not authenticated.
 */

SimpleRouter::group(['prefix' => 'v1', 'middleware' => '\MyWebsite\Middleware\SomeMiddlewareClass'], function() {

    SimpleRouter::group(['prefix' => 'services'], function() {

        SimpleRouter::get('/answers/{id}', 'ControllerAnswers@show');

    });
});
```

### Doing it the object oriented (hardcore) way

The ```SimpleRouter``` class referenced in the previous example, is just a simple helper class that knows how to communicate with the ```RouterBase``` class. 
If you are up for a challenge, want the full control or simply just want to create your own ```Router``` helper class, this example is for you.

```php
use \Pecee\SimpleRouter\RouterBase;
use \Pecee\SimpleRouter\RouterRoute;

$router = RouterBase::getInstance();

$route = new RouterRoute('/answer/1', function() {
    die('this callback will match /answer/1');
});

$route->setMiddleware('\HSWebserviceV1\Middleware\AuthMiddleware');
$route->setNamespace('MyWebsite');
$route->setPrefix('v1');

// Add the route to the router
$router->addRoute($route);
```

This is a simple example of an integration into a framework.

The framework has it's own ```Router``` class which inherits from the ```SimpleRouter``` class. This allows the framework to add custom functionality.

```php
namespace MyProject;

use Pecee\Handler\ExceptionHandler;
use Pecee\SimpleRouter\SimpleRouter;

class Router extends SimpleRouter {

    protected static $exceptionHandlers = array();

    public static function start() {

        Debug::getInstance()->add('Router initialised.');

        // Load routes.php
        $file = $_ENV['basePath'] . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'lib' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'routes.php';
        if(file_exists($file)) {
            require_once $file;
        }

        // Init locale settings
        Locale::getInstance();

        // Set default namespace
        $defaultNamespace = '\\'.Registry::getInstance()->get('AppName') . '\\Controller';

        // Handle exceptions
        try {
            parent::start($defaultNamespace); // TODO: Change the autogenerated stub
        } catch(\Exception $e) {
            /* @var $handler ExceptionHandler */
            foreach(self::$exceptionHandlers as $handler) {
                $class = new $handler();
                $class->handleError($e);
            }

            throw $e;
        }
    }

    public static function addExceptionHandler($handler) {
        self::$exceptionHandlers[] = $handler;
    }

}
```

This is a basic example of a ```helper.php``` for generating urls.

```php
use Pecee\SimpleRouter\RouterBase;
function url($controller, $parameters = null, $getParams = null) {
    RouterBase::getInstance()->getRoute($controller, $parameters, $getParams);
}
```

In ```routes.php``` we have added this route:

```Router::get('/item/{id}', 'myController@show');```

In the template we call:

```url('myController@show', ['id' => 22], ['category' => 'shoes']);``` 

Result url is:

```/item/22?category=shoes```

## Documentation
While I work on a better documentation, please refer to the Laravel 5 routing documentation here:

http://laravel.com/docs/5.1/routing

## Easily extendable
The router can be easily extended to customize your needs.