Enhanced Router is an extension to the Laravel 4 router and provides some enhanced functionality.

Add jasonlewis/enhanced-router to composer.json.

"jasonlewis/enhanced-router": "1.0.*"

Run composer update to pull down the latest version of Enhanced Router. Now open up app/config/app.php and add the service provider to your providers array.

'providers' => array(
    'JasonLewis\EnhancedRouter\EnhancedRouterServiceProvider'
)

That's it. You now have some enhanced functionality available to your routes.

• Set where requirements on route group prefixes and domains.
• Use the before and after methods to apply filters to an entire route group.
• Set filters to run on an HTTP verb or an array of HTTP verbs.

Once you have the package installed and the service provider in your providers key you can begin using the features right away.

Using the Laravel 4 router there is no way to set a requirement on a prefix. What this means is that prefixes themselves are hard-coded. There are a number of real-world scenarios where being able to use variable prefixes is very useful.

Let's say you're building an application that has localization support and you're currently prefixing all your routes with the locale.

Route::get('{locale}/about', function($locale)
{

})->where('locale', '(en|fr)');

Route::get('{locale}', function($locale)
{
    return 'Homepage';
})->where('locale', '(en|fr)');

For a small application this might suffice. But once your application gets quite large it can become a bit of a smell. And when it comes time to add another language you'll need to go through all the routes and add the language.

Using Enhanced Router you can set the requirement itself on the group. This means you only need to define the requirement once, and adding languages in the future isn't so painful.

Route::group(array('prefix' => '{locale}'), function()
{
    Route::get('about', function($locale)
    {
    
    });
    
    Route::get('/', function($locale)
    {
        return 'Homepage';
    });
})->where('locale', '(en|fr)');

It's important to note that the locale is actually given to each route as a parameter. The parameter is also given to every method of every controller that is within the group. When your route requires a parameter of its own it will be given after the prefix parameter.

Using route groups in Laravel 4 you can specify the domain the group responds to. This is especially helpful when you want to route to a subdomain. Currently you can only route to a single subdomain or every subdomain.

Route::group(array('domain' => 'example.laravel.dev'), function()
{

});

Route::group(array('domain' => '{user}.laravel.dev'), function()
{

});

The first group will match example.laravel.dev and the second will match any subdomain. Using the exact same syntax as prefixes you can also set the requirement on the subdomain.

Route::group(array('domain' => '{user}.laravel.dev'), function()
{

})->where('user', '(jason|shawn)');

Now the group will only match the subdomains jason.laravel.dev and shawn.laravel.dev.

Filters can now be applied to a group using the fluent syntax you might be familiar with from routes. The only thing to be aware of here is that you still need to provide an array as the first parameter to the group.

Route::group(array(), function()
{
    
})->before('auth');

All filters in the group will now have the auth filter applied to them. When you have nested groups with filters applied to them the outermost filters are applied first since they are actually defined first.

Route::group(array(), function()
{
    Route::group(array(), function()
    {
    
    })->before('csrf');
})->before('auth');

The above example would trigger the auth filter first and then move on to the csrf filter if the matched route was within that group.

Because of type hinting in the Laravel 4 router it's difficult to remove the empty array from the first parameter. If you aren't using a prefix or subdomain routing then you can use the new bunch method.

Route::bunch(function()
{

})->before('auth');

This method is the same as group except you don't have to pass in an array as the first parameter.

Enhanced Router allows you to apply filters to all routes for specific HTTP verbs. Consider an application where all POST requests require the csrf filter.

Route::on('post', 'csrf');

Or you can use an array of verbs.

Route::on(['post', 'put'], 'csrf');

You can also use an array of filters to apply.

Route::on(['post', 'put'], ['csrf', 'auth']);

This example shows how you can nest groups and use filters, domains, and prefixes all at once.

Route::group(array('prefix' => '{locale}'), function()
{
    Route::controller('auth', 'AuthController');
    
    Route::bunch(function()
    {
        Route::get('/', 'UserController@profile');
        
        Route::group(array('domain' => 'admin.laravel.dev'), function()
        {
            Route::resource('posts', 'AdminPostsController');

            Route::controller('/', 'AdminController');
        });
    })->before('auth');
})->where('locale', '(en|fr)');

• Fixed a change that was made to the original Laravel router.

• Fixed bug that re-ordered routes that were defined in groups. Route order is now maintained correctly.

• Allow an array to be given as the expression and have it converted to a proper regular expression.
• Added on method to apply filters on a given HTTP verb.

• Initial release.

Released under the 2-clause BSD. Copyright 2013 Jason Lewis.