Routing

Table of contents

  1. Overview
  2. How It Works
  3. Default Conventions
  4. Fallbacks
  5. No Route File? Why?
  6. Pros and Cons


1. Overview Table of Contents

📘 Routing System (Dynamic Routing) Unlike many modern PHP frameworks that use a route definition file (e.g., routes/web.php), Chappy.php uses dynamic routing. This means routes are automatically resolved based on the URL structure and available controllers/methods—no manual route registration required.


2. 🧠 How It Works Table of Contents

The Router class parses incoming requests and maps them directly to controller methods using the URL pattern:

/controller/method/optional/params

For example:
| URL                    | Resolved Method                          |
|------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
| `/home/index`          | `HomeController::index()`                |
| `/user/profile/42`     | `UserController::profile(42)`            |
| `/auth/login`          | `AuthController::login()`                |

If the URL is /, it defaults to:

HomeController::index()


3. 🏗 Default Conventions Table of Contents

  • Controller classes must be located in app/Controllers/.
  • Controller names should end with Controller (e.g., UserController).
  • Method names in controllers map 1:1 with URL segments.
  • Additional URL segments are passed as arguments to the controller method.


4. 🛡 Fallbacks Table of Contents

If a controller does not exist the user is redirected to a view indicating the issue. When an action does not exist then whoops displays an error indicating the function does not exist in the controller.


5. 🚫 No Route File? Why? Table of Contents

Chappy.php uses dynamic routing to keep your application lightweight, fast, and convention-driven, eliminating the need to register every route manually.

  • This pattern is ideal for:
  • Small to medium-sized applications
  • Developers who prefer convention over configuration
  • Rapid prototyping and reduced boilerplate


6. Pros and Cons Table of Contents

✅ Pros

  • No route files to maintain
  • Easy to follow MVC conventions
  • Clear structure: URL = Controller → Method

⚠️ Considerations

  • You can’t assign route names or middleware per route (yet)
  • Custom route aliases or regex pattern matching aren’t supported out of the box
  • You should avoid duplicate method names across controllers that could cause confusion