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Getting started

Every page load begins with a request, the request is the url that the user enters when trying to access a page on your website.

A request is checked against routes that have been defined, if the route for a request cannot be found then a 404 error would be returned.

Put simply a route is the url a user would type into the address bar.

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Routes

Routes are bound to a module and optionally an action (a method with the action name within the module controller)

The routes file can be found in /application/routes.php here you'll define all routes for your website/application.

By default the routes file will container two routes:

# Binds the index page
# mywebsite.com

Pocket::setRoute('/');

# Binds anything after the first slash
# mywebsite.com/example

Pocket::setRoute('/<:slug>');

The second rule is a regular expression, anything found after the first / will be captured and stored as a parameter with the given name - in this case 'slug'

The method Pocket::setRoute($route, $opts) accepts two parameters $route & $opts if the $opts array is not passed that route will be bound to the by default to the 'default' module.

Because we've not passed the action in the $opts array Pocket will try to match the users input to a method within the default controller... For example mywebsite.com/example is bound to a method in the default controller called example, if the method does not exist a 404 error will be returned.

Hyphenated requests will be converted to underscores e.g. mywebsite.com/example-page will try to load the example_page method.

Pocket::setRoute($route, $opts)

The $opts parameter is an optional array that accepts a module and optionally an action key, if the action is not set Pocket will look for a method in the defined module controller using the last part of the url.

Pocket::setRoute('/testing/<:slug>', array(
     'module'  =>  'testmodule'
));

For example the above would route mywebsite.com/testing/test to the method 'test' within the 'testmodule' controller.

Alternatively you can supply an action:

Pocket::setRoute('/testing/<:slug>', array(
     'module'  =>  'testmodule',
     'action'  =>  'mymethod'
));

This will route anything after testing e.g. mywebsite.com/testing/hello, mywebsite.com/testing/hello-world etc to a single method 'mymethod' within the 'testmodule' controller.

Simple route design

The $route parameter is designed to be easy to read and write, you don't need to know how to write regular expression rules. A route should resemble a url with the option to add 'pretty' catchall expressions.

Pocket has three simple expressions, routes can use any number of these in any order.

<:param_name_here>
Matches alphanumeric hyphens & undercores

<#param_name_here>
Matches numeric only

<:param_name_here([a-z]+)>
Allows you to define your own expression

Example routes

Below are some examples of some commonly used routes

News article

Pocket::setRoute('/news/<:article_slug>-<#article_id>', array(
     'module'  =>  'news',
     'action'  =>  'article'
));

This route would route mywebsite.com/news/some-article-title-123 to the 'news' module sending parameters 'article_slug' and 'article_id' to the 'article' method in the controller.

News pagination

Pocket::setRoute('/news/page<#page_num>', array(
     'module'  =>  'news',
     'action'  =>  'articles_list'
));

This route would route mywebsite.com/news/page3 to the 'news' module sending parameters 'page_num' to the 'articles_list' method in the controller.

General content

Pocket::setRoute('/about/<:slug>', array(
     'module'  =>  'default',
     'action'  =>  'about_us'
));

This route would route mywebsite.com/about/anything, mywebsite.com/about/anything-else to the 'default' module sending parameters 'slug' to the 'about_us' method in the controller.

In the 'about_us' method you could check to see if the requested 'slug' is a valid page using a model that interrogates a database (see Models)

Alternatively if the website or application only has a few static pages remove the action from the $opts array and let Pocket find the method for you.

Pocket::setRoute('/about/<:slug>', array(
     'module'  =>  'default'
));

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Controllers

Views

Models