In this article we assume that you are familiar with The YAML Format and Configuration File Principles.
The routing.yml configuration file allows the definition of routes. The main routing.yml file for an application can be found in the apps/APP_NAME/config/ directory. It contains a list of named route definitions:
ROUTE_1: # definition of route 1 ROUTE_2: # definition of route 2 # ...
When a request comes in, the routing system tries to match a route to the incoming URL. The first route that matches wins, so the order in which routes are defined in the routing.yml configuration file is important.
When the routing.yml configuration file is read, each route is converted to an object of class class:
ROUTE_NAME: class: CLASS_NAME # configuration if the route
The class name should extend the sfRoute base class. If not provided, the sfRoute base class is used as a fallback.
# Main routing configuration
route_name:
class: class_name
url: url_string
type: route_type
param:
module: module_name
action: action_name
sf_format: <html | atom | xml | json | yaml | other_formats>
sf_culture: culture_name
variable_name: value
params: array_of_parameters
options:
variable_prefixes: [prefix1, prefix2, ...]
segment_separators: [seperator1, seperator2, ...]
suffix: suffix_string
generate_shortest_url: <true | false>
extra_parameters_as_query_string: <true | false>
variable_regex: regular_expression
requirements:
sf_format: format_requirements
sf_culture: culture_requirements
variable_name: regular_expression
# sfRequestRoute configuration options
route_name:
class: sfRequestRoute
requirements:
sf_method: [<get | post | header | put | delete>, ...]
# sfObjectRoute configuration options
route_name:
class: <sfObjectRoute | sfDoctrineRoute | sfPropelRoute>
options:
model: model_name
type: <object | list>
method: model_method
allow_empty: <true | false>
convert: method_name
method_for_query: method_name
method_for_criteria: method_name
# sfObjectRouteCollection configuration options
route_name:
class: <sfObjectRouteCollection | sfDoctrineRouteCollection | sfPropelRouteCollection>
options:
model: model_name
actions: [<list | new | create | edit | update | delete | show>, ...]
module: module_name
prefix_path: prefix_path_string
column: column_name
with_show: <true | false>
segment_names: { edit: edit_name, new: new_name }
with_wildcard_routes: <true | false>
route_class: class_name
collection_actions: { action1: [<get | post | header | put | delete>,...], action2: post, ... }
object_actions: { action1: [<get | post | header | put | delete>,...], action2: put, ... }
requirements:
variable_name: regular_expression
model_methods:
list: method_name
object: method_name
Defines unique route name, which is there for legibility and speed, and can be used by the link helpers (eg.: link_to, url_for).
route_name > class
Defines the route class to use for the route. All route classes extends the sfRoute base class, which provides the required settings to configure a route. Default: sfRoute (or sfRouteCollection if type is collection, see below)
route_name > url
Defines the pattern that must match an incoming URL for the route to be used for the current request. The pattern is made of segments:
Each segment must be separated by one of the pre-defined separator (/ or . by default). Default: /
route_name > type
Defines route type. If set to collection, the route will be read as a route collection. This setting is automatically set to collection by the config handler class if the class name contains the word Collection. It means that most of the time, you do not need to use this setting.
route_name > param
Defines an array of request parameters associated with the route. They can be default values for variables contained in the url, or any other variable relevant for this route. Default: An empty array
route_name > param > module
This is a special variable which is used by symfony in pair with the action varaible to determine the module and action to execute. You can also use module in your url pattern:
default_index:
url: /:module
param: { action: index }
The module value can then be retrieved in the action class with $request→getParameter('module'). See definition of the action variable as well.
This is a special variable which is used by symfony in pair with the module varaible to determine the module and action to execute. You can also use action variable in your url pattern:
default: url: /:module/:action/*
The action value can then be retrieved in the action class with $request→getParameter('action'). See definition of the module variable as well.
This is a special variable which is used by symfony to determine the requested format. The symfony framework has native support for formats and mime-types. This means that the same Model and Controller can have different templates based on the requested format. The default format is HTML but symfony supports several other formats out of the box like txt, js, css, json, xml, rdf, or atom. By default, symfony will change the response Content-Type according to the format, and for all non-HTML formats, the layout is disabled. The sf_format value can be retrieved in the action with $request→getRequestFormat(). Default: html
This is a special variable which is used by symfony to determine the user culture. By default, the user culture is the one configured in the settings.yml configuration file default_culture option. In an action you can manage the user culture by calling the setCulture() and getCulture() methods on the User object:
$this->getUser()->setCulture('fr_BE'); echo $this->getUser()->getCulture();
The culture can be embedded in the url:
job_search:
url: /:sf_culture/search
param: { module: job, action: search }
When the sf_culture variable is used in a route, symfony will automatically use its value to change the culture of the user.
In the param section, you can define any variable relevant for this route. The parameters don't need to be variables found in the url pattern. In the example below, the display parameter takes the value true, even if it is not present in the URL.
article_by_id:
url: /article/:id
param: { module: article, action: read, id: 1, display: true }
The display value can then be retrieved in an action with $request→getParameter('display').
This setting is equivalent to the param settings. Default: An empty array
Defines an array of options to be passed to the route object to further customize its behavior. The following sections describe the available options for each route class. Default: An empty array
Defines the list of characters that starts a variable name in a route pattern. Default: [:]
Defines the list of route segment separators. Default: [/, .]
Defines the suffix to use for this route. This suffix is added to the end of the url. This option is deprecated and is not useful anymore. Default: Empty string
Specifies whether to generate the shortest URL possible. If set to true, this option will tell the routing system to generate the shortest route possible by omitting empty route variables in the end of the URL. For example if you have this URL pattern:
/users/:username/:sort/:start/
the :username is set to 'test1' and the other two variables (:sort and :start) are left unset, but have default values defined, then the routing system will generate this URL:
/users/test1/
Set generate_shortest_url to false if you want your routes to be backward compatible with symfony 1.0 and 1.1. Possible values: <true | false> Default: true
When some parameters are not used in the generation of a route, this option allows those extra parameters to be converted to a query string. Set it to false to fallback to the behavior of symfony 1.0 or 1.1. In those versions, the extra parameters were just ignored by the routing system. Possible values: <true | false> Default: true
Defines regular expression used to adjust the characters allowed in your variable names. It's advisable to wrap the regex in «()». Default: [\w\d_]+
Defines an array of requirements that must be satisfied by the url variables. The keys are the url variables and the values are regular expressions that the variable values must match. The regular expression will be included in another regular expression, and as such, you don't need to wrap them between separators, nor do you need to bound them with ^ or $ to match the whole value. Default: An empty array
Restricts requested formats. You can restrict sf_format to one format as well as to several formats. For example if you want to restrict formats to html and atom do the folowing:
requirements: sf_format: (?:html|atom)
Restricts user cultures. You can restrict sf_culture to one user culture as well as to several user cultures. For example if you want to restrict user cultures to fr and en do the folowing:
requirements: sf_culture: (?:fr|en)
Each url pattern variable can be validated by a regular expression defined using the requirements entry of a route definition, The keys are the url variables and the values are regular expressions that the variable values must match:
job:
url: /job/:company/:location/:id/:position
param: { module: job, action: show }
requirements:
id: \d+
The above requirements entry forces the id to be a numeric value. If not, the route won't match and the routing system will keep on looking for a match in the following rules.
sfRequestRoute represents a route that is request aware. It extends the sfRoute class and hence it inherits all configuration options that sfRoute has. In addition sfRequestRoute class exposes a sf_method requirement, allowing you to create RESTful interfaces based on HTTP request method. Requiring a route to only match for some HTTP methods is not totally equivalent to using sfWebRequest::isMethod() in your actions. That's because the routing will continue to look for a matching route if the method does not match the expected one. Possible values: sfRequestRoute
This option is to be used in the requirements array. It enforces the HTTP request in the route matching process and restricts a route to only match for certain request methods, eg.:
content:
class: sfRequestRoute
url: /content
param:
module: content
action: index
requirements:
sf_method: [get]
Possible values: [<get | post | header | put | delete>, …] Default: get
route_name > class
sfObjectRoute class is optimized for routes that represent database objects or collections of database objects. sfDoctrineRoute class extends sfObjectRoute and is optimized for routes that represent Doctrine objects or collections of Doctrine objects. sfPropelRoute class extends sfObjectRoute and is optimized for routes that represent Propel objects or collections of Propel objects. Every class extends the sfRequestRoute class and hence they inherit all configuration options that sfRequestRoute and sfRoute has. The route is also able to find the object related to a given URL. The related object can be retrieved with the getObject() method of the route object:
class jobActions extends sfActions { public function executeShow(sfWebRequest $request) { $this->job = $this->getRoute()->getObject(); $this->forward404Unless($this->job); } }
The related object of a route is lazy loaded. It is only retrieved from the database if you call the getRoute() method. Possible values: <sfObjectRoute | sfDoctrineRoute | sfPropelRoute>
Defines the name of the model class to be associated with the current route. This option is mandatory.
Defines the type of route you want for your model; it can be either object or list. A route of type object represents a single model object, and a route of type list represents a collection of model objects. This option is mandatory. Possible values: <object | list>
Defines the method to call on the model class to retrieve the object(s) associated with this route. This must be a static method. The method is called with the parameters of the parsed route as an argument. This option is mandatory.
If the this option is set to false, the route will throw a 404 exception if no object is returned by the call to the model method. Possible values: <true | false> Default: true
Defines a method to call to convert a model object to an array of parameters suitable for generating a route based on this model object. It must returns an array with at least the required parameters of the route pattern (as defined by the url setting). Default: toParams
Defines the method to call on the model to retrieve the object(s) associated with the current request. The current query object is passed as an argument. This method must be created in the model table class and takes Doctrine_Query object as a parameter, which you can modify further, eg.:
class ObjectTable extends Doctrine_Table { public function retrieveObjectList(Doctrine_Query $q) { $rootAlias = $q->getRootAlias(); $q->leftJoin($rootAlias . '.ObjectCategory c'); return $q->execute(); } }
If the option is not set, the query is just «executed» with the execute() method. This option is available only for sfDoctrineRoute class.
Defines the method called on the model Peer class to retrieve the object(s) associated with the current request. The method is called with the parameters of the parsed route as an argument. This option is available only for sfPropelRoute class. Default: doSelect (for collections), doSelectOne (for single objects)
The sfObjectRouteCollection represents a collection of routes bound to objects. The sfDoctrineRouteCollection route class extends the sfObjectRouteCollection, and changes the default route class to sfDoctrineRoute (see the route_class option below). The sfPropelRouteCollection route class extends the sfObjectRouteCollection, and changes the default route class to sfPropelRoute. Route collection can be used to define the classic seven actions possible for a model (index, new, edit, create, update, delete and show); Possible values: <sfObjectRouteCollection | sfDoctrineRouteCollection | sfPropelRouteCollection>
Defines the name of the model class to be associated with the current route. This option is mandatory.
Defines an array of authorized actions for the route. The actions must be a sub-set of all available actions: list, new, create, edit, update, delete, and show. Eg.:
article:
class: sfObjectRouteCollection
options:
model: Article
actions: [new, create]
If the option is set to false, the default, all actions will be available except for the show one if the with_show option is set to false (see below). Default: false
Defines the module name. Default: The route name
route_name > options > prefix_path
Defines a prefix to prepend to all url patterns. It can be any valid pattern and can contain variables and several segments. Default: / followed by the route name
route_name > options > column
Defines the column of the model to use as the unique identifier for the model object. Default: id
route_name > options > with_show
Determine if the show action must be included in the list of authorized actions for the route. This option is used when the actions option is set to false. Possible values: <true | false> Default: true
route_name > options > segment_names
Defines the words to use in the url patterns for the edit and new actions. Default: { edit: edit, new: new }
route_name > options > with_wildcard_routes
This option allows (or not) for any action to be accessed via two wildcard routes: one for a single object, and another for object collections. Possible values: <true | false> Default: false
route_name > options > route_class
This option overrides the default route object used for the collection. Default: sfObjectRoute (for sfObjectRouteCollection), sfDoctrineRoute (for sfDoctrineRouteCollection), sfPropelRoute (for sfPropelRouteCollection)
route_name > options > collection_actions
Defines an array of additional actions available for the collection routes. The keys are the action names and the values are the valid methods for that action:
articles:
options:
collection_actions: { filter: post, filterBis: [post, get] }
# ...
Default: An empty array
route_name > options > object_actions
Defines an associative array of additional actions available for the object routes. The keys are the action names and the values are the valid methods for that action:
articles:
options:
object_actions: { publish: put, publishBis: [post, put] }
# ...
Default: An empty array
route_name > options > requirements
Defines an array of requirements that must be satisfied by the url variables.
route_name > options > requirements > variable_name
Each url pattern variable can be validated by a regular expression defined using the requirements entry of a route definition, The keys are the url variables and the values are regular expressions that the variable values must match:
job:
class: sfDoctrineRouteCollection
options:
model: Job
column: token
prefix_path: /:sf_culture/job
module: sfJob
requirements:
token: \w+
sf_culture: (?:lt|en)
The above requirements entry forces the token to contain only word characters (letters, digits, and underscores). If not, the route won't match and the routing system will keep on looking for a match in the following rules.
route_name > options > model_methods
Defines the methods to call to retrieve the object(s) from the model (see the method option of sfObjectRoute). This is actually an array defining the list and the object methods. Default: An empty array
Defines the method to call on the model class to retrieve the objects associated with this route. This must be a static method. The method is called with the parameters of the parsed route as an argument.
Defines the method to call on the model class to retrieve the object associated with this route. This must be a static method. The method is called with the parameters of the parsed route as an argument.