[5.5] Add Route::redirect() method

[brayniverse]

This adds a new Route::redirect() method that handles simple redirects from one route to another. This implementation works with route caching because it uses an internal RedirectController.

The method accepts three arguments $url, $destination, and $status. The status is optional and defaults to 301.

Route::redirect('contact_us', 'contact', 302);

The implementation is based off my package Laravel route macros with one minor difference, the controller makes use of __invoke instead of a handle method. This is because when writing the test I couldn't find a way to attach the Route to the Request instance, and the __invoke method is handed each "parameter" - for some reason this works with Laravel's test suite but $request->route('parameter') does not 🤷‍♂️ . I can't think of any reason this __invoke approach will cause any problems.

✌️

[taylorotwell]

Is it useful to pass along the current query string?

[brayniverse]

Yes definitely. I did a naive test for this early on but it was hardcoding the query into the destination URL. What do you think about also passing through the headers? Is there a way to create a redirect from an existing request object?

[masterwto]

If we needed a route::redirect method to redirect an URL to another, why don't we use that route directly? I don't think this any useful.

[brayniverse]

Because you may need to keep that old route available for backwards compatibility, but a new route is handling the request. I've had to do this many times with applications that have a long enough shelf life.

[lucasmichot]

Missing docblocks

[brayniverse]

Ah yes, thanks for pointing this out.

[lucasmichot]

@return \Illuminate\Routing\Route

[brayniverse]

Thanks, I'll amend this after work.

[lucasmichot]

Using ::class notation is also fine: return $this->any($url, RedirectController::class)...

[brayniverse]

I checked a couple other cases and the core and strings seemed to be the convention. I'm happy to use class notation, Taylor can always change it if he's not happy with it.

[masterwto]

If we need to keep that old route available for backwards compatibility, but a new route is handling the request, we simply need to define the two routes. If the old route is to be unavailable, just give out the new route.

[taylorotwell]

@brayniverse what do you mean hard-coding the query into the destination URL?

[brayniverse]

I tried Route::redirect('hello?name=jane', 'greet') which I realised wasn't evidence that query strings are persisted across redirects. I wasn't ready for this PR to be merged because query strings don't work with this implementation. I could append the results of $request->all() if it's not empty, but it doesn't feel quite right. Is it possible to create a redirect from a request object?

[rs-sliske]

would it be possible to get this added to 5.4 aswell?

[brayniverse]

@rs-sliske you can back-port this functionality using macros. However, if you don't want to bother with that I've got a [route macro package] (https://github.com/brayniverse/laravel-route-macros) which adds this functionality for Laravel 5.1 onwards.

[rs-sliske]

@brayniverse i realised not long after replying that this wasnt the right solution for my use case, if i need in future i will look into that package (or just use 5.5). thanks :)

[joaomnb]

If there are multiple routes with the same uri but different http verbs, this applies to all of them. Any chance of adding a way of specifying the desired http verb? Or perhaps a route name?

[brayniverse]

@joaomnb it'd be quite easy to allow an additional parameter to specify the verb - use self::$verbs as the default. You would need to use addRoute directly and pass the new verb(s) parameter. You'd be able to specify a single verb (as a string) or an array of verbs. Fancy giving a PR a go? I'd be happy to help if you need anything.

[joaomnb]

I’ve never done it before, but yeah! Seems like a good chance to start 🙂 Thanks!!