Basic Routing
All Laravel routes are defined in the
app/Http/routes.php
file, which is
automatically loaded by the framework. The most basic
Laravel routes simply accept a URI and a
Closure
, providing a very simple and
expressive method of defining routes:
Route::get('foo', function () {
return 'Hello World';
});
The Default Routes File
The default routes.php
file is loaded by the
RouteServiceProvider
and is automatically
included in the web
middleware group, which
provides access to session state and CSRF protection.
Most of the routes for your application will be defined
within this file.
Available Router Methods
The router allows you to register routes that respond to any HTTP verb:
Route::get($uri, $callback);
Route::post($uri, $callback);
Route::put($uri, $callback);
Route::patch($uri, $callback);
Route::delete($uri, $callback);
Route::options($uri, $callback);
Sometimes you may need to register a route that responds
to multiple HTTP verbs. You may do so using the
match
method. Or, you may even register a
route that responds to all HTTP verbs using the
any
method:
Route::match(['get', 'post'], '/', function () {
//
});
Route::any('foo', function () {
//
});
Route Parameters
Required Parameters
Of course, sometimes you will need to capture segments of the URI within your route. For example, you may need to capture a user's ID from the URL. You may do so by defining route parameters:
Route::get('user/{id}', function ($id) {
return 'User '.$id;
});
You may define as many route parameters as required by your route:
Route::get('posts/{post}/comments/{comment}', function ($postId, $commentId) {
//
});
Route parameters are always encased within
"curly" braces. The parameters will be passed
into your route's Closure
when the route is
executed.
Note: Route parameters cannot contain the
-
character. Use an underscore (_
) instead.
Optional Parameters
Occasionally you may need to specify a route parameter,
but make the presence of that route parameter optional.
You may do so by placing a ?
mark after the
parameter name. Make sure to give the route's
corresponding variable a default value:
Route::get('user/{name?}', function ($name = null) {
return $name;
});
Route::get('user/{name?}', function ($name = 'John') {
return $name;
});
Regular Expression Constraints
You may constrain the format of your route parameters
using the where
method on a route instance.
The where
method accepts the name of the
parameter and a regular expression defining how the
parameter should be constrained:
Route::get('user/{name}', function ($name) {
//
})
->where('name', '[A-Za-z] ');
Route::get('user/{id}', function ($id) {
//
})
->where('id', '[0-9] ');
Route::get('user/{id}/{name}', function ($id, $name) {
//
})
->where(['id' => '[0-9] ', 'name' => '[a-z] ']);
Global Constraints
If you would like a route parameter to always be
constrained by a given regular expression, you may use
the pattern
method. You should define these
patterns in the boot
method of your
RouteServiceProvider
:
/**
* Define your route model bindings, pattern filters, etc.
*
* @param \Illuminate\Routing\Router $router
* @return void
*/
public function boot(Router $router)
{
$router->pattern('id', '[0-9] ');
parent::boot($router);
}
Once the pattern has been defined, it is automatically applied to all routes using that parameter name:
Route::get('user/{id}', function ($id) {
// Only called if {id} is numeric.
});
Named Routes
Named routes allow the convenient generation of URLs or
redirects for specific routes. You may specify a name
for a route using the as
array key when
defining the route:
Route::get('user/profile', ['as' => 'profile', function () {
//
}]);
You may also specify route names for controller actions:
Route::get('user/profile', [
'as' => 'profile', 'uses' => 'UserController@showProfile'
]);
Alternatively, instead of specifying the route name in
the route array definition, you may chain the
name
method onto the end of the route
definition:
Route::get('user/profile', 'UserController@showProfile')->name('profile');
Route Groups & Named Routes
If you are using route
groups, you may specify an as
keyword in the route group attribute array, allowing you
to set a common route name prefix for all routes within
the group:
Route::group(['as' => 'admin::'], function () {
Route::get('dashboard', ['as' => 'dashboard', function () {
// Route named "admin::dashboard"
}]);
});
Generating URLs To Named Routes
Once you have assigned a name to a given route, you may
use the route's name when generating URLs or redirects
via the global route
function:
// Generating URLs...
$url = route('profile');
// Generating Redirects...
return redirect()->route('profile');
If the named route defines parameters, you may pass the
parameters as the second argument to the
route
function. The given parameters will
automatically be inserted into the URL in their correct
positions:
Route::get('user/{id}/profile', ['as' => 'profile', function ($id) {
//
}]);
$url = route('profile', ['id' => 1]);
Route Groups
Route groups allow you to share route attributes, such as
middleware or namespaces, across a large number of
routes without needing to define those attributes on
each individual route. Shared attributes are specified
in an array format as the first parameter to the
Route::group
method.
To learn more about route groups, we'll walk through several common use-cases for the feature.
Middleware
To assign middleware to all routes within a group, you
may use the middleware
key in the group
attribute array. Middleware will be executed in the
order you define this array:
Route::group(['middleware' => 'auth'], function () {
Route::get('/', function () {
// Uses Auth Middleware
});
Route::get('user/profile', function () {
// Uses Auth Middleware
});
});
Namespaces
Another common use-case for route groups is assigning the
same PHP namespace to a group of controllers. You may
use the namespace
parameter in your group
attribute array to specify the namespace for all
controllers within the group:
Route::group(['namespace' => 'Admin'], function()
{
// Controllers Within The "App\Http\Controllers\Admin" Namespace
Route::group(['namespace' => 'User'], function() {
// Controllers Within The "App\Http\Controllers\Admin\User" Namespace
});
});
Remember, by default, the
RouteServiceProvider
includes your
routes.php
file within a namespace group,
allowing you to register controller routes without
specifying the full App\Http\Controllers
namespace prefix. So, we only need to specify the
portion of the namespace that comes after the base
App\Http\Controllers
namespace.
Sub-Domain Routing
Route groups may also be used to route wildcard
sub-domains. Sub-domains may be assigned route
parameters just like route URIs, allowing you to capture
a portion of the sub-domain for usage in your route or
controller. The sub-domain may be specified using the
domain
key on the group attribute
array:
Route::group(['domain' => '{account}.myapp.com'], function () {
Route::get('user/{id}', function ($account, $id) {
//
});
});
Route Prefixes
The prefix
group attribute may be used to
prefix each route in the group with a given URI. For
example, you may want to prefix all route URIs within
the group with admin
:
Route::group(['prefix' => 'admin'], function () {
Route::get('users', function () {
// Matches The "/admin/users" URL
});
});
You may also use the prefix
parameter to
specify common parameters for your grouped routes:
Route::group(['prefix' => 'accounts/{account_id}'], function () {
Route::get('detail', function ($accountId) {
// Matches The "/accounts/{account_id}/detail" URL
});
});
CSRF Protection
Introduction
Laravel makes it easy to protect your application from cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks. Cross-site request forgeries are a type of malicious exploit whereby unauthorized commands are performed on behalf of an authenticated user.
Laravel automatically generates a CSRF "token" for each active user session managed by the application. This token is used to verify that the authenticated user is the one actually making the requests to the application.
Anytime you define a HTML form in your application, you
should include a hidden CSRF token field in the form so
that the CSRF protection middleware will be able to
validate the request. To generate a hidden input field
_token
containing the CSRF token, you may
use the csrf_field
helper function:
// Vanilla PHP
<?php echo csrf_field(); ?>
// Blade Template Syntax
{{ csrf_field() }}
The csrf_field
helper function generates the
following HTML:
<input type="hidden" name="_token" value="<?php echo csrf_token(); ?>">
You do not need to manually verify the CSRF token on
POST, PUT, or DELETE requests. The
VerifyCsrfToken
middleware, which is
included in the web
middleware group, will
automatically verify that the token in the request input
matches the token stored in the session.
Excluding URIs From CSRF Protection
Sometimes you may wish to exclude a set of URIs from CSRF protection. For example, if you are using Stripe to process payments and are utilizing their webhook system, you will need to exclude your webhook handler route from Laravel's CSRF protection.
You may exclude URIs by defining their routes outside of
the web
middleware group that is included
in the default routes.php
file, or by
adding the URIs to the $except
property of
the VerifyCsrfToken
middleware:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Middleware;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken as BaseVerifier;
class VerifyCsrfToken extends BaseVerifier
{
/**
* The URIs that should be excluded from CSRF verification.
*
* @var array
*/
protected $except = [
'stripe/*',
];
}
X-CSRF-TOKEN
In addition to checking for the CSRF token as a POST
parameter, the Laravel VerifyCsrfToken
middleware will also check for the
X-CSRF-TOKEN
request header. You could, for
example, store the token in a "meta" tag:
<meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token() }}">
Once you have created the meta
tag, you can
instruct a library like jQuery to add the token to all
request headers. This provides simple, convenient CSRF
protection for your AJAX based applications:
$.ajaxSetup({
headers: {
'X-CSRF-TOKEN': $('meta[name="csrf-token"]').attr('content')
}
});
X-XSRF-TOKEN
Laravel also stores the CSRF token in a
XSRF-TOKEN
cookie. You can use the cookie
value to set the X-XSRF-TOKEN
request
header. Some JavaScript frameworks, like Angular, do
this automatically for you. It is unlikely that you will
need to use this value manually.
Route Model Binding
Laravel route model binding provides a convenient way to
inject model instances into your routes. For example,
instead of injecting a user's ID, you can inject the
entire User
model instance that matches the
given ID.
Implicit Binding
Laravel will automatically resolve type-hinted Eloquent models defined in routes or controller actions whose variable names match a route segment name. For example:
Route::get('api/users/{user}', function (App\User $user) {
return $user->email;
});
In this example, since the Eloquent type-hinted
$user
variable defined on the route matches
the {user}
segment in the route's URI,
Laravel will automatically inject the model instance
that has an ID matching the corresponding value from the
request URI.
If a matching model instance is not found in the database, a 404 HTTP response will be automatically generated.
Customizing The Key Name
If you would like the implicit model binding to use a
database column other than id
when
retrieving models, you may override the
getRouteKeyName
method on your Eloquent
model:
/**
* Get the route key for the model.
*
* @return string
*/
public function getRouteKeyName()
{
return 'slug';
}
Explicit Binding
To register an explicit binding, use the router's
model
method to specify the class for a
given parameter. You should define your model bindings
in the RouteServiceProvider::boot
method:
Binding A Parameter To A Model
public function boot(Router $router)
{
parent::boot($router);
$router->model('user', 'App\User');
}
Next, define a route that contains a {user}
parameter:
$router->get('profile/{user}', function(App\User $user) {
//
});
Since we have bound the {user}
parameter to
the App\User
model, a User
instance will be injected into the route. So, for
example, a request to profile/1
will inject
the User
instance which has an ID of 1.
If a matching model instance is not found in the database, a 404 HTTP response will be automatically generated.
Customizing The Resolution Logic
If you wish to use your own resolution logic, you should
use the Route::bind
method. The
Closure
you pass to the bind
method will receive the value of the URI segment, and
should return an instance of the class you want to be
injected into the route:
$router->bind('user', function ($value) {
return App\User::where('name', $value)->first();
});
Customizing The "Not Found" Behavior
If you wish to specify your own "not found"
behavior, pass a Closure
as the third
argument to the model
method:
$router->model('user', 'App\User', function () {
throw new NotFoundHttpException;
});
Form Method Spoofing
HTML forms do not support PUT
,
PATCH
or DELETE
actions. So,
when defining PUT
, PATCH
or
DELETE
routes that are called from an HTML
form, you will need to add a hidden _method
field to the form. The value sent with the
_method
field will be used as the HTTP
request method:
<form action="/foo/bar" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="_method" value="PUT">
<input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ csrf_token() }}">
</form>
To generate the hidden input field _method
,
you may also use the method_field
helper
function:
<?php echo method_field('PUT'); ?>
Of course, using the Blade templating engine:
{{ method_field('PUT') }}
Accessing The Current Route
The Route::current()
method will return the
route handling the current HTTP request, allowing you to
inspect the full Illuminate\Routing\Route
instance:
$route = Route::current();
$name = $route->getName();
$actionName = $route->getActionName();
You may also use the currentRouteName
and
currentRouteAction
helper methods on the
Route
facade to access the current route's
name or action:
$name = Route::currentRouteName();
$action = Route::currentRouteAction();
Please refer to the API documentation for both the underlying class of the Route facade and Route instance to review all accessible methods.