.. index:: single: Routing
Beautiful URLs are a must for any serious web application. This means leaving
behind ugly URLs like index.php?article_id=57
in favor of something like
/read/intro-to-symfony
.
Having flexibility is even more important. What if you need to change the
URL of a page from /blog
to /news
? How many links would you need to
hunt down and update to make the change? If you're using Symfony's router,
the change should be trivial.
.. index:: single: Routing; Basics
A route is a map from a URL path to attributes (i.e a controller). Suppose
you want one route that matches /blog
exactly and another more dynamic
route that can match any URL like /blog/my-post
or
/blog/all-about-symfony
.
Routes can be configured in YAML, XML, PHP or using annotations. All formats provide the same features and performance, so choose the one you prefer. If you choose PHP annotations, run this command once in your application to add support for them:
$ composer require annotations
Now you can configure the routes:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/BlogController.php namespace App\Controller; use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route; class BlogController extends AbstractController { /** * Matches /blog exactly * * @Route("/blog", name="blog_list") */ public function list() { // ... } /** * Matches /blog/* * but not /blog/slug/extra-part * * @Route("/blog/{slug}", name="blog_show") */ public function show($slug) { // $slug will equal the dynamic part of the URL // e.g. at /blog/yay-routing, then $slug='yay-routing' // ... } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml blog_list: # Matches /blog exactly path: /blog controller: App\Controller\BlogController::list blog_show: # Matches /blog/* # but not /blog/slug/extra-part path: /blog/{slug} controller: App\Controller\BlogController::show .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <!-- Matches /blog exactly --> <route id="blog_list" path="/blog" controller="App\Controller\BlogController::list"> <!-- settings --> </route> <!-- Matches /blog/* --> <!-- but not /blog/slug/extra-part --> <route id="blog_show" path="/blog/{slug}" controller="App\Controller\BlogController::show"> <!-- settings --> </route> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php use App\Controller\BlogController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator\RoutingConfigurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { // Matches /blog exactly $routes->add('blog_list', '/blog') ->controller([BlogController::class, 'list']) ; // Matches /blog/* // but not /blog/slug/extra-part $routes->add('blog_show', '/blog/{slug}') ->controller([BlogController::class, 'show']) ; };
Thanks to these two routes:
- If the user goes to
/blog
, the first route is matched andlist()
is executed; - If the user goes to
/blog/*
, the second route is matched andshow()
is executed. Because the route path is/blog/{slug}
, a$slug
variable is passed toshow()
matching that value. For example, if the user goes to/blog/yay-routing
, then$slug
will equalyay-routing
.
Whenever you have a {placeholder}
in your route path, that portion becomes
a wildcard: it matches any value. Your controller can now also have an
argument called $placeholder
(the wildcard and argument names must
match).
Caution!
However, the slash /
is ignored by default in placeholder values because
the router uses it as separator between different placeholders.
To learn more about this, you can read
:ref:`routing/slash_in_parameter`.
Each route also has an internal name: blog_list
and blog_show
. These can
be anything (as long as each is unique) and don't have any meaning yet. You'll
use them later to :ref:`generate URLs <routing-generate>`.
Routing in Other Formats
The @Route
above each method is called an annotation. If you'd rather
configure your routes in YAML, XML or PHP, that's no problem! Create a new
routing file (e.g. routes.xml
) in the config/
directory and Symfony
will automatically use it.
Routes can be localized to provide unique paths per :doc:`locale </translation/locale>`. Symfony provides a handy way to declare localized routes without duplication.
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/CompanyController.php namespace App\Controller; use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route; class CompanyController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route({ * "nl": "/over-ons", * "en": "/about-us" * }, name="about_us") */ public function about() { // ... } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml about_us: path: nl: /over-ons en: /about-us controller: App\Controller\CompanyController::about .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <route id="about_us" controller="App\Controller\CompanyController::about"> <path locale="nl">/over-ons</path> <path locale="en">/about-us</path> </route> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php use App\Controller\CompanyController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator\RoutingConfigurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->add('about_us', [ 'nl' => '/over-ons', 'en' => '/about-us', ]) ->controller([CompanyController::class, 'about']) ; };
When a localized route is matched Symfony automatically knows which locale should be used during the request. Defining routes this way also eliminated the need for duplicate registration of routes which minimizes the risk for any bugs caused by definition inconsistency.
Tip
If the application uses full language + territory locales (e.g. fr_FR
,
fr_BE
), you can use the language part only in your routes (e.g. fr
).
This prevents having to define multiple paths when you want to use the same
route path for locales that share the same language.
A common requirement for internationalized applications is to prefix all routes with a locale. This can be done by defining a different prefix for each locale (and setting an empty prefix for your default locale if you prefer it):
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes/annotations.yaml controllers: resource: '../../src/Controller/' type: annotation prefix: en: '' # don't prefix URLs for English, the default locale nl: '/nl' .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes/annotations.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <import resource="../src/Controller/" type="annotation"> <!-- don't prefix URLs for English, the default locale --> <prefix locale="en"></prefix> <prefix locale="nl">/nl</prefix> </import> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes/annotations.php use Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator\RoutingConfigurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->import('../src/Controller/', 'annotation') ->prefix([ // don't prefix URLs for English, the default locale 'en' => '', 'nl' => '/nl' ]) ; };
Imagine the blog_list
route will contain a paginated list of blog posts, with
URLs like /blog/2
and /blog/3
for pages 2 and 3. If you change the route's
path to /blog/{page}
, you'll have a problem:
- blog_list:
/blog/{page}
will match/blog/*
; - blog_show:
/blog/{slug}
will also match/blog/*
.
When two routes match the same URL, the first route that's loaded wins. Unfortunately,
that means that /blog/yay-routing
will match the blog_list
. No good!
To fix this, add a requirement that the {page}
wildcard can only match numbers
(digits):
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/BlogController.php namespace App\Controller; use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route; class BlogController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route("/blog/{page}", name="blog_list", requirements={"page"="\d+"}) */ public function list($page) { // ... } /** * @Route("/blog/{slug}", name="blog_show") */ public function show($slug) { // ... } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml blog_list: path: /blog/{page} controller: App\Controller\BlogController::list requirements: page: '\d+' blog_show: # ... .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <route id="blog_list" path="/blog/{page}" controller="App\Controller\BlogController::list"> <requirement key="page">\d+</requirement> </route> <!-- ... --> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php use App\Controller\BlogController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator\RoutingConfigurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->add('blog_list', '/blog/{page}') ->controller([BlogController::class, 'list']) ->requirements(['page' => '\d+']) ; // ... };
The \d+
is a regular expression that matches a digit of any length. Now:
URL | Route | Parameters |
---|---|---|
/blog/2 |
blog_list |
$page = 2 |
/blog/yay-routing |
blog_show |
$slug = yay-routing |
If you prefer, requirements can be inlined in each placeholder using the syntax
{placeholder_name<requirements>}
. This feature makes configuration more
concise, but it can decrease route readability when requirements are complex:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/BlogController.php namespace App\Controller; use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route; class BlogController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route("/blog/{page<\d+>}", name="blog_list") */ public function list($page) { // ... } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml blog_list: path: /blog/{page<\d+>} controller: App\Controller\BlogController::list .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <route id="blog_list" path="/blog/{page<\d+>}" controller="App\Controller\BlogController::list"/> <!-- ... --> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php use App\Controller\BlogController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator\RoutingConfigurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->add('blog_list', '/blog/{page<\d+>}') ->controller([BlogController::class, 'list']) ; // ... };
To learn about other route requirements - like HTTP method, hostname and dynamic expressions - see :doc:`/routing/requirements`.
In the previous example, the blog_list
has a path of /blog/{page}
. If
the user visits /blog/1
, it will match. But if they visit /blog
, it
will not match. As soon as you add a {placeholder}
to a route, it
must have a value.
So how can you make blog_list
once again match when the user visits
/blog
? By adding a default value:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/BlogController.php namespace App\Controller; use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route; class BlogController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route("/blog/{page}", name="blog_list", requirements={"page"="\d+"}) */ public function list($page = 1) { // ... } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml blog_list: path: /blog/{page} controller: App\Controller\BlogController::list defaults: page: 1 requirements: page: '\d+' blog_show: # ... .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <route id="blog_list" path="/blog/{page}" controller="App\Controller\BlogController::list"> <default key="page">1</default> <requirement key="page">\d+</requirement> </route> <!-- ... --> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php use App\Controller\BlogController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator\RoutingConfigurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->add('blog_list', '/blog/{page}') ->controller([BlogController::class, 'list']) ->defaults(['page' => 1]) ->requirements(['page' => '\d+']) ; };
Now, when the user visits /blog
, the blog_list
route will match and
$page
will default to a value of 1
.
If you want to always include some default value in the generated URL (for
example to force the generation of /blog/1
instead of /blog
in the
previous example) add the !
character before the placeholder name: /blog/{!page}
As it happens with requirements, default values can also be inlined in each
placeholder using the syntax {placeholder_name?default_value}
. This feature
is compatible with inlined requirements, so you can inline both in a single
placeholder:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/BlogController.php namespace App\Controller; use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route; class BlogController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route("/blog/{page<\d+>?1}", name="blog_list") */ public function list($page) { // ... } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml blog_list: path: /blog/{page<\d+>?1} controller: App\Controller\BlogController::list .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <route id="blog_list" path="/blog/{page <\d+>?1}" controller="App\Controller\BlogController::list"/> <!-- ... --> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php use App\Controller\BlogController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator\RoutingConfigurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->add('blog_list', '/blog/{page<\d+>?1}') ->controller([BlogController::class, 'list']) ; };
Tip
To give a null
default value to any placeholder, add nothing after the
?
character (e.g. /blog/{page?}
).
As your app grows, you'll eventually have a lot of routes! To see them all, run:
$ php bin/console debug:router
------------------------------ -------- -------------------------------------
Name Method Path
------------------------------ -------- -------------------------------------
app_lucky_number ANY /lucky/number/{max}
...
------------------------------ -------- -------------------------------------
.. index:: single: Routing; Advanced example single: Routing; _format parameter
With all of this in mind, check out this advanced example:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/ArticleController.php // ... class ArticleController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route( * "/articles/{_locale}/{year}/{slug}.{_format}", * defaults={ * "_locale": "en", * "_format": "html" * }, * requirements={ * "_locale": "en|fr", * "_format": "html|rss", * "year": "\d+" * } * ) */ public function show($_locale, $year, $slug) { } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml article_show: path: /articles/{_locale}/{year}/{slug}.{_format} controller: App\Controller\ArticleController::show defaults: _locale: en _format: html requirements: _locale: en|fr _format: html|rss year: \d+ .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <route id="article_show" path="/articles/{_locale}/{year}/{slug}.{_format}" controller="App\Controller\ArticleController::show"> <default key="_locale">en</default> <default key="_format">html</default> <requirement key="_locale">en|fr</requirement> <requirement key="_format">html|rss</requirement> <requirement key="year">\d+</requirement> </route> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php use App\Controller\ArticleController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator\RoutingConfigurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->add('article_show', '/articles/{_locale}/{year}/{slug}.{_format}') ->controller([ArticleController::class, 'show']) ->defaults([ '_locale' => 'en', '_format' => 'html', ]) ->requirements([ '_locale' => 'en|fr', '_format' => 'html|rss', 'year' => '\d+', ]) ; };
As you've seen, this route will only match if the {_locale}
portion of
the URL is either en
or fr
and if the {year}
is a number. This
route also shows how you can use a dot between placeholders instead of
a slash. URLs matching this route might look like:
/articles/en/2010/my-post
/articles/fr/2010/my-post.rss
/articles/en/2013/my-latest-post.html
The Special _format
Routing Parameter
This example also highlights the special _format
routing parameter.
When using this parameter, the matched value becomes the "request format"
of the Request
object.
Ultimately, the request format is used for such things as setting the
Content-Type
of the response (e.g. a json
request format translates
into a Content-Type
of application/json
).
Note
Sometimes you want to make certain parts of your routes globally configurable. Symfony provides you with a way to do this by leveraging service container parameters. Read more about this in ":doc:`/routing/service_container_parameters`".
As you've seen, each routing parameter or default value is eventually available as an argument in the controller method. Additionally, there are four parameters that are special: each adds a unique piece of functionality inside your application:
_controller
- As you've seen, this parameter is used to determine which controller is executed when the route is matched.
_format
- Used to set the request format (:ref:`read more <routing-format-param>`).
_fragment
- Used to set the fragment identifier, the optional last part of a URL that
starts with a
#
character and is used to identify a portion of a document. _locale
- Used to set the locale on the request (:ref:`read more <translation-locale-url>`).
You can also use special attributes to configure them (except _fragment
):
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/ArticleController.php // ... class ArticleController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route( * "/articles/{_locale}/search.{_format}", * locale="en", * format="html", * requirements={ * "_locale": "en|fr", * "_format": "html|xml", * } * ) */ public function search() { } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml article_search: path: /articles/{_locale}/search.{_format} controller: App\Controller\ArticleController::search locale: en format: html requirements: _locale: en|fr _format: html|xml .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <route id="article_search" path="/articles/{_locale}/search.{_format}" controller="App\Controller\ArticleController::search" locale="en" format="html"> <requirement key="_locale">en|fr</requirement> <requirement key="_format">html|rss</requirement> </route> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php namespace Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator; use App\Controller\ArticleController; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->add('article_show', '/articles/{_locale}/search.{_format}') ->controller([ArticleController::class, 'search']) ->locale('en') ->format('html') ->requirements([ '_locale' => 'en|fr', '_format' => 'html|rss', ]) ; };
These attributes can also be used for route imports.
Historically, URLs have followed the UNIX convention of adding trailing slashes
for directories (e.g. https://example.com/foo/
) and removing them to refer
to files (https://example.com/foo
). Although serving different contents for
both URLs is OK, nowadays it's common to treat both URLs as the same URL and
redirect between them.
Symfony follows this logic to redirect between URLs with and without trailing
slashes (but only for GET
and HEAD
requests):
Route path | If the requested URL is /foo |
If the requested URL is /foo/ |
/foo |
It matches (200 status response) |
It makes a 301 redirect to /foo |
/foo/ |
It makes a 301 redirect to /foo/ |
It matches (200 status response) |
Note
If your application defines different routes for each path (/foo
and
/foo/
) this automatic redirection doesn't take place and the right
route is always matched.
.. index:: single: Routing; Controllers single: Controller; String naming format
The controller
value in your routes has the format CONTROLLER_CLASS::METHOD
.
Tip
To refer to an action that is implemented as the __invoke()
method of a controller class,
you do not have to pass the method name, you can also use the fully qualified class name (e.g.
App\Controller\BlogController
).
.. index:: single: Routing; Generating URLs
The routing system can also generate URLs. In reality, routing is a bidirectional system: mapping the URL to a controller and also a route back to a URL.
To generate a URL, you need to specify the name of the route (e.g. blog_show
)
and any wildcards (e.g. slug = my-blog-post
) used in the path for that
route. With this information, an URL can be generated in a controller:
class BlogController extends AbstractController { public function show($slug) { // ... // /blog/my-blog-post $url = $this->generateUrl( 'blog_show', ['slug' => 'my-blog-post'] ); } }
If you need to generate a URL from a service, type-hint the :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Routing\\Generator\\UrlGeneratorInterface` service:
// src/Service/SomeService.php use Symfony\Component\Routing\Generator\UrlGeneratorInterface; class SomeService { private $router; public function __construct(UrlGeneratorInterface $router) { $this->router = $router; } public function someMethod() { $url = $this->router->generate( 'blog_show', ['slug' => 'my-blog-post'] ); // ... } }
.. index:: single: Routing; Generating URLs in a template
The generate()
method takes an array of wildcard values to generate the URI.
But if you pass extra ones, they will be added to the URI as a query string:
$this->router->generate('blog', [ 'page' => 2, 'category' => 'Symfony', ]); // /blog/2?category=Symfony
When a route is localized, Symfony uses by default the current request locale to
generate the URL. In order to generate the URL for a different locale you must
pass the _locale
in the parameters array:
$this->router->generate('about_us', [ '_locale' => 'nl', ]); // generates: /over-ons
To generate URLs inside Twig, see the templating article: :ref:`templating-pages`. If you also need to generate URLs in JavaScript, see :doc:`/routing/generate_url_javascript`.
.. index:: single: Routing; Absolute URLs
By default, the router will generate relative URLs (e.g. /blog
). From
a controller, pass UrlGeneratorInterface::ABSOLUTE_URL
to the third argument of the generateUrl()
method:
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Generator\UrlGeneratorInterface; $this->generateUrl('blog_show', ['slug' => 'my-blog-post'], UrlGeneratorInterface::ABSOLUTE_URL); // http://www.example.com/blog/my-blog-post
Note
The host that's used when generating an absolute URL is automatically
detected using the current Request
object. When generating absolute
URLs from outside the web context (for instance in a console command) this
doesn't work. See :doc:`/console/request_context` to learn how to
solve this problem.
Here are some common errors you might see while working with routing:
Controller "App\Controller\BlogController::show()" requires that you provide a value for the "$slug" argument.
This happens when your controller method has an argument (e.g. $slug
):
public function show($slug) { // ... }
But your route path does not have a {slug}
wildcard (e.g. it is /blog/show
).
Add a {slug}
to your route path: /blog/show/{slug}
or give the argument
a default value (i.e. $slug = null
).
Some mandatory parameters are missing ("slug") to generate a URL for route "blog_show".
This means that you're trying to generate a URL to the blog_show
route but you
are not passing a slug
value (which is required, because it has a {slug}
)
wildcard in the route path. To fix this, pass a slug
value when generating the
route:
$this->generateUrl('blog_show', ['slug' => 'slug-value']); // or, in Twig // {{ path('blog_show', {'slug': 'slug-value'}) }}
Routing, check! Now, uncover the power of :doc:`controllers </controller>`.
.. toctree:: :hidden: controller
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 :glob: routing/*