Routing in my PHP MVC framework

Question

For a couple of years I have been working on my own lightweight MVC framework for PHP. Which I may at some point release under an opensource license.

Here is what I have been using for handling routes:

function routes($routes, $uriPath) {

    // Loop through every route and compare it with the URI
    foreach ($routes as $route => $actualPage) {

        // Create a route with all identifiers replaced with ([^/]+) regex syntax
        // E.g. $route_regex = shop-please/([^/]+)/moo (originally shop-please/:some_identifier/moo)
        $route_regex = preg_replace('@:[^/]+@', '([^/]+)', $route);

        // Check if URI path matches regex pattern, if so create an array of values from the URI
        if(!preg_match('@' . $route_regex . '@', $uriPath, $matches)) continue;

        // Create an array of identifiers from the route
        preg_match('@' . $route_regex . '@', $route, $identifiers);

        // Combine the identifiers with the values
        $this->request->__get = array_combine($identifiers, $matches);
        array_shift($this->request->__get);

        return $actualPage;
    }

    // We didn't find a route match
    return false;
}

$routes is a passed array formatted like this:

$routes = array(
    // route => actual page
    'page/:action/:id' => 'actualPage',
    'page/:action' => 'actualPage',
)

$uriPath is the URI path without a leading forward-slash e.g. page/update/102

In my page controllers I can access the the route information like so:

echo $this->request->__get['action'];
// update

echo $this->request->__get['id'];
// 102

My question is essentially "can this be simplified or optimised?". With particular emphasis on simplifying the regex and the number of preg_replace and preg_match calls.

Do you have performance issues? Take a look here kohanaframework.org/3.2/guide/api/Route — Dejan Marjanović
– Dejan Marjanović, Commented Dec 6, 2011 at 22:25

Gajus · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-06 22:57:20Z

5

I find use of regex in such scenario very unwise, mostly because this can be done without it. I've put up a simply code below that does exactly the same without regex.

Code:

<?php
$routes             = array
(
    // actual path => filter
    'foo'   => array('page', ':action', ':id'),
    'bar'   => array('page', ':action')
);

/**
 * @author Gajus Kuizinas <[email protected]>
 * @copyright Anuary Ltd, http://anuary.com
 * @version 1.0.0 (2011 12 06)
 */
function ay_dispatcher($url, $routes)
{
    $final_path         = FALSE;

    $url_path           = explode('/', $url);
    $url_path_length    = count($url_path);

    foreach($routes as $original_path => $filter)
    {
        // reset the parameters every time in case there is partial match
        $parameters     = array();

        // this filter is irrelevent
        if($url_path_length <> count($filter))
        {
            continue;
        }

        foreach($filter as $i => $key)
        {
            if(strpos($key, ':') === 0)
            {
                $parameters[substr($key, 1)]    = $url_path[$i];
            }
            // this filter is irrelevent
            else if($key != $url_path[$i])
            {       
                continue 2;
            }
        }

        $final_path = $original_path;

        break;
    }

    return $final_path ? array('path' => $final_path, 'parameters' => $parameters) : FALSE;
}

die(var_dump( ay_dispatcher('page/edit', $routes), ay_dispatcher('page/edit/12', $routes), ay_dispatcher('random/invalid/url', $routes) ));

Output:

array(2) {
  ["path"]=>
  string(3) "bar"
  ["parameters"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["action"]=>
    string(4) "edit"
  }
}
array(2) {
  ["path"]=>
  string(3) "foo"
  ["parameters"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["action"]=>
    string(4) "edit"
    ["id"]=>
    string(2) "12"
  }
}
bool(false)

answered Dec 6, 2011 at 22:57

Gajus

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4 Comments

Dan Over a year ago

I do like this solution! Maybe I should stop mimicking Zend Framework so much. However, possibly for beginners, the regex method makes the $routes array slightly more readable.

Gajus Over a year ago

It takes 1 line of code to convert your $routes to my format, e.g. array_map(funciton($e){ return explode('/', $e); }$your_routes).

Gajus Over a year ago

An updated version can be found at meta.codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/411/…

Anthony Rutledge Over a year ago

@Gajus Hello. Would you take a stab at my question for the possibility of earning 300 points? stackoverflow.com/questions/42172228/…

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