Allow empty paths without making them initial?

[JonasJW]

Take this route as an example

AutoRoute(
  path: "/",
  page: TabbarAutoRoute.page,
  children: [
    AutoRoute(
      path: 'home',
      page: HomeRoute.page,
      initial: true,
    ),
    AutoRoute(
      path: '',
      page: ContentRoute.page,
      initial: false,
      children: [
        AutoRoute(
          path: 'routines',
          page: RoutineListRoute.page,
          initial: false,
        ),
        AutoRoute(
          path: "programs",
          page: ProgramListRoute.page,
          initial: false,
        ),
      ],
    ),

  ],
),

The ContentRoute has an AutoTabsRouter that renders the routes RoutineListRoute and ProgramListRoute.

I would like to set the path of ContentRoute to empty, so the paths /routines and /programs lead to the related tabs. However, I want to have the HomeRoute as the initial route.

It seems, leaving a path empty means it's automatically the initial route, even when having other routes marked as initial.

I would like that the path / leads to HomeRoute but it always leads to RoutineListRoute. Only /routines should lead to RoutineListRoute, not /.

[JonasJW]

Maybe this is a better example:

AutoRoute(
  path: "/login", 
  page: LoginRoute.page,
  initial: user == null, // Initial if user is not logged in
),
AutoRoute(
  path: "/",
  page: TabbarAutoRoute.page,
  initial: user != null, // Initial if user is logged in
  children: [
    AutoRoute(
      path: 'home',
      page: HomeRoute.page,
      initial: AuthState().currentUid != null,
    ),
    AutoRoute(
      path: 'profile',
      page: ProfileRoute.page,
    ),
  ],
),

Due to the fact that the TabbarAutoRoute has an empty route, it is always initial. Even though the LoginRoute should be initialed if no user is logged in. I think this is a common use case, of course it would be solvable by giving TabbarAutoRoute a not empty path but then the paths for HomeRoute and ProfileRoute have a prefix, which I would like to avoid.

[JonasJW]

@Milad-Akarie sorry for tagging you but I really was wondering if there is a solution to this so the empty path is not automatically the initial path?

[Milad-Akarie]

Hey @JonasJW I just wanted to take a look at the possibilities before I reply, they way RouteMatcher works this might need some work, it's not a bug it's just meant to work this way, so changing the implementation might take some work, besides, it might introduce breaking changes.

from your usecase above I think what you need is active redirection based on user status, if that's the case what you need is to use AutoRouteGuard, you can implement and pass your guards to AutoRoute(guards:...) or use the shorthand AutoRute.guarded if you don't intent to have multiple guards.

AutoRoute.guarded(
      page: HomeRoute.page,
      path: '/home',
      initial: true,
      onNavigation: (resolver,_){
         if(user != null){
           resolver.next();
         }else{
           resolver.redirect(LoginRoute(noResult: resolver.next));
         }
       },
)

[JonasJW]

@Milad-Akarie thanks for the clarification!

I don't think the AutoRouteGuard approach would work in my case because I want users to be allowed to skip the login step, so even unauthenticated users should be able to navigate to the HomePage. It should just show different initial routes to ask not logged-in users to log in or skip and go to HomePage, while for logged-in users, start directly at the HomePage.

However, I found that in my use case a simple RedirectionRoute does the job

RedirectRoute(
  path: "/",
  redirectTo: user != null ? "/home" : "/signin",
),

Thanks for your help!