Simple PHP Router

Hey! This is a simple and small PHP router that can handle the whole URL routing for your project. It utilizes RegExp and PHP's anonymous functions to create a lightweight and fast routing system. The router supports dynamic path parameters, special 404 and 405 routes as well as verification of request methods like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc. The codebase is very small and very easy to understand. So you can use it as a boilerplate for a more complex router.

Take a look at the index.php file. As you can see the Route::add() method is used to add new routes to your project. The first argument takes the path segment. You can also use RegExp in there to parse out variables. All matching variables will be pushed to the handler method defined in the second argument. The third argument will match the request method. The default method is 'get'.

Simple example:

include 'Route.php';

Route::add('/user/([0-9]*)/edit',function($id) {
  echo 'Edit user with id '.$id.'<br>';
}, 'get');

Route::run('/');

You will find a more complex example with a build in navigation in the index.php file.

Use a different basepath

If your script lives in a subfolder (e.g. /api/v1) set this basepath in your run method:

Route::run('/api/v1');

Do not forget to edit the basepath in .htaccess too if you are on Apache2. In order to run the test files correctly inside a basepath you should also adjust the navigation links inside the index.php.

Enable case sensitive routes and trailing slashes

The second and third parameters of Route::run('/', false, false); are both set to false by default. You can enable case sensitive mode by setting the second parameter to true. By default the router will ignore trailing slashes. Set the third parameter to true to avoid this.

Something does not work?

• Dont forget to set the correct basepath as argument in your run method and in your .htaccess file.
• Enable mod_rewrite in your Apache2 settings

Test setup with Docker

I have created a little Docker test setup.

1. Build the image: docker build -t simplephprouter docker/image

2. Spin up a container

   • On Linux / Mac or Windows Powershell use: docker run -d -p 80:80 -v $(pwd):/var/www/html --name simplephprouter simplephprouter
   • On Windows CMD use docker run -d -p 80:80 -v %cd%:/var/www/html --name simplephprouter simplephprouter

3. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost

Test setup with Vagrant (not longer maintained)

There is a little Vagrant test setup. Just run vagrant up to spin up an Apache2 web server on Ubuntu. Then navigate to http://router.local after adding the machine IP to your hosts file. This test setup is not longer maintained and will probably break in the future. Use the Docker test setup instead.

Themes, layouts, pages and components

If you are interested in some basic concepts on how to build a simple PHP page using this router including themes, layouts, pages and components checkout this repo: https://github.com/steampixel/simplePHPPages This project will give you some ideas and basics on how to get started with no dependencies.

Todo

• Create demo configuration for nginx
• Create Composer configuration and upload to packagist.org

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for further information.