=encoding utf8

=head1 NAME

Mojolicious::Guides::Routing - Routing

=head1 OVERVIEW

This document contains a simple and fun introduction to the L<Mojolicious>

router and its underlying concepts.

=head1 CONCEPTS

Essentials every L<Mojolicious> developer should know.

=head2 Dispatcher

The foundation of every web framework is a tiny black box connecting incoming

requests with code generating the appropriate response.

  GET /user/show/1 -> $self->render(text => 'Sebastian');

This black box is usually called a dispatcher. There are many implementations

using different strategies to establish these connections, but pretty much all

are based around mapping the requests path to some kind of response generator.

  /user/show/1 -> $self->render(text => 'Sebastian');

  /user/show/2 -> $self->render(text => 'Sara');

  /user/show/3 -> $self->render(text => 'Baerbel');

  /user/show/4 -> $self->render(text => 'Wolfgang');

While it is very well possible to make all these connections static, it is

also rather inefficient. That's why regular expressions are commonly used to

make the dispatch process more dynamic.

  qr!/user/show/(\d+)! -> $self->render(text => $users{$1});

Modern dispatchers have pretty much everything HTTP has to offer at their

disposal and can use many more variables than just the request path, such as

request method and headers like C<Host>, C<User-Agent> and C<Accept>.

  GET /user/show/23 HTTP/1.1

  Host: mojolicio.us

  User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Mojolicious; Perl)

  Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8

=head2 Routes

While regular expressions are quite powerful they also tend to be unpleasant

to look at and are generally overkill for ordinary path matching.

  qr!/user/show/(\d+)! -> $self->render(text => $users{$1});

This is where routes come into play, they have been designed from the ground

up to represent paths with placeholders.

  /user/show/:id -> $self->render(text => $users{$id});

The only difference between a static path and the route above is the C<:id>

placeholder. One or more placeholders can be anywhere in the route.

  /user/:action/:id

A fundamental concept of the L<Mojolicious> router is that extracted

placeholder values are turned into a hash.

  /user/show/23 -> /user/:action/:id -> {action => 'show', id => 23}

This hash is basically the center of every L<Mojolicious> application, you

will learn more about this later on. Internally routes get compiled to regular

expressions, so you can get the best of both worlds with a little bit of

experience.

  /user/show/:id -> qr/(?-xism:^\/user\/show/([^\/\.]+))/

A trailing slash is always optional.

  /user/show/23/ -> /user/:action/:id -> {action => 'show', id => 23}

=head2 Reversibility

One more huge advantage routes have over regular expressions is that they are

easily reversible, extracted placeholders can be turned back into a path at

any time.

  /sebastian -> /:name -> {name => 'sebastian'}

  {name => 'sebastian'} -> /:name -> /sebastian

Every placeholder has a name, even if it's just an empty string.

=head2 Generic placeholders

Generic placeholders are the simplest form of placeholders, they use a colon

prefix and match all characters except C</> and C<.>.

  /hello              -> /:name/hello -> undef

  /sebastian/23/hello -> /:name/hello -> undef

  /sebastian.23/hello -> /:name/hello -> undef

  /sebastian/hello    -> /:name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian'}

  /sebastian23/hello  -> /:name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian23'}

  /sebastian 23/hello -> /:name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian 23'}

All placeholders can be surrounded by parentheses to separate them from the

surrounding text.

  /hello             -> /(:name)hello -> undef

  /sebastian/23hello -> /(:name)hello -> undef

  /sebastian.23hello -> /(:name)hello -> undef

  /sebastianhello    -> /(:name)hello -> {name => 'sebastian'}

  /sebastian23hello  -> /(:name)hello -> {name => 'sebastian23'}

  /sebastian 23hello -> /(:name)hello -> {name => 'sebastian 23'}

The colon prefix is optional for generic placeholders that are surrounded by

parentheses.

  /i♥mojolicious -> /(one)♥(two) -> {one => 'i', two => 'mojolicious'}

=head2 Relaxed placeholders

Relaxed placeholders are just like generic placeholders, but use a hash prefix

and match all characters except C</>.

  /hello              -> /#name/hello -> undef

  /sebastian/23/hello -> /#name/hello -> undef

  /sebastian.23/hello -> /#name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian.23'}

  /sebastian/hello    -> /#name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian'}

  /sebastian23/hello  -> /#name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian23'}

  /sebastian 23/hello -> /#name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian 23'}

=head2 Wildcard placeholders

Wildcard placeholders are just like the two placeholders above, but use an

asterisk prefix and match absolutely everything, including C</> and C<.>.

  /hello              -> /*name/hello -> undef

  /sebastian/23/hello -> /*name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian/23'}

  /sebastian.23/hello -> /*name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian.23'}

  /sebastian/hello    -> /*name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian'}

  /sebastian23/hello  -> /*name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian23'}

  /sebastian 23/hello -> /*name/hello -> {name => 'sebastian 23'}

=head1 BASICS

Most commonly used features every L<Mojolicious> developer should know about.

=head2 Minimal route

The attribute L<Mojolicious/"routes"> contains a router you can use to

generate route structures, they match in the same order in which they were

defined.

  # Application

  package MyApp;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious';

  sub startup {

    my $self = shift;

    # Router

    my $r = $self->routes;

    # Route

    $r->route('/welcome')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'welcome');

  }

  1;

The minimal route above will load and instantiate the class C<MyApp::Foo> and

call its C<welcome> method.

  # Controller

  package MyApp::Foo;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious::Controller';

  # Action

  sub welcome {

    my $self = shift;

    # Render response

    $self->render(text => 'Hello there.');

  }

  1;

Routes are usually configured in the C<startup> method of the application

class, but the router can be accessed from everywhere (even at runtime).

=head2 Routing destination

After you start a new route with the method L<Mojolicious::Routes/"route">,

you can also give it a destination in the form of a hash using the chained

method L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"to">.

  # /welcome -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'welcome'}

  $r->route('/welcome')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'welcome');

Now if the route matches an incoming request it will use the content of this

hash to try and find appropriate code to generate a response.

=head2 Stash

The generated hash of a matching route is actually the center of the whole

L<Mojolicious> request cycle. We call it the stash, and it persists until a

response has been generated.

  # /bye -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bye', mymessage => 'Bye'}

  $r->route('/bye')

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bye', mymessage => 'Bye');

There are a few stash values with special meaning, such as C<controller> and

C<action>, but you can generally fill it with whatever data you need to

generate a response. Once dispatched the whole stash content can be changed at

any time.

  sub bye {

    my $self = shift;

    # Get message from stash

    my $msg = $self->stash('mymessage');

    # Change message in stash

    $self->stash(mymessage => 'Welcome');

  }

For a full list of reserved stash values see

L<Mojolicious::Controller/"stash">.

=head2 Nested routes

It is also possible to build tree structures from routes to remove repetitive

code. A route with children can't match on its own though, only the actual

endpoints of these nested routes can.

  # /foo     -> undef

  # /foo/bar -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  my $foo = $r->route('/foo')->to(controller => 'foo');

  $foo->route('/bar')->to(action => 'bar');

The stash is simply inherited from route to route and newer values override

old ones.

  # /foo     -> undef

  # /foo/abc -> undef

  # /foo/bar -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  # /foo/baz -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'baz'}

  # /foo/cde -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'abc'}

  my $foo = $r->route('/foo')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'abc');

  $foo->route('/bar')->to(action => 'bar');

  $foo->route('/baz')->to(action => 'baz');

  $foo->route('/cde');

=head2 Special stash values

When the dispatcher sees C<controller> and C<action> values in the stash it

will always try to turn them into a class and method to dispatch to. The

C<controller> value gets camelized using L<Mojo::Util/"camelize"> and

prefixed with a C<namespace> (defaulting to the applications class). While the

action value is not changed at all, because of this both values are case

sensitive.

  # Application

  package MyApp;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious';

  sub startup {

    my $self = shift;

    # /bye -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bye'} -> MyApp::Foo->bye

    $self->routes->route('/bye')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bye');

  }

  1;

  # Controller

  package MyApp::Foo;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious::Controller';

  # Action

  sub bye {

    my $self = shift;

    # Render response

    $self->render(text => 'Good bye.');

  }

  1;

Controller classes are perfect for organizing code in larger projects. There

are more dispatch strategies, but because controllers are the most commonly

used ones they also got a special shortcut in the form of

C<controller#action>.

  # /bye -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bye', mymessage => 'Bye'}

  $r->route('/bye')->to('foo#bye', mymessage => 'Bye');

During camelization C<-> gets replaced with C<::>, this allows multi level

C<controller> hierarchies.

  # / -> {controller => 'foo-bar', action => 'hi'} -> MyApp::Foo::Bar->hi

  $r->route('/')->to('foo-bar#hi');

For security reasons the dispatcher will always check if the C<controller> is

actually a subclass of L<Mojolicious::Controller> or L<Mojo> before

dispatching to it.

=head2 Route to class

You can use the C<namespace> stash value to change the namespace of a whole

route with all its children.

  # /bye -> MyApp::Controller::Foo::Bar->bye

  $r->route('/bye')

    ->to(namespace => 'MyApp::Controller::Foo::Bar', action => 'bye');

The C<controller> is always appended to the C<namespace> if available.

  # /bye -> MyApp::Controller::Foo::Bar->bye

  $r->route('/bye')->to('foo-bar#bye', namespace => 'MyApp::Controller');

  # /hey -> MyApp::Controller::Foo::Bar->hey

  $r->route('/hey')->to('Foo::Bar#hey', namespace => 'MyApp::Controller');

You can also change the default namespaces for all routes in the application

with the router attribute L<Mojolicious::Routes/"namespaces">.

  $r->namespaces(['MyApp::Controller']);

=head2 Route to callback

The C<cb> stash value, which won't be inherited by nested routes, can be used

to bypass controllers and execute a callback instead.

  $r->route('/bye')->to(cb => sub {

    my $self = shift;

    $self->render(text => 'Good bye.');

  });

This technique is the foundation of L<Mojolicious::Lite>, you can learn more

about it from the included tutorial.

=head2 Placeholders and destinations

Extracted placeholder values will simply redefine older stash values if they

already exist.

  # /bye -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', mymessage => 'bye'}

  # /hey -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', mymessage => 'hey'}

  $r->route('/:mymessage')

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', mymessage => 'hi');

One more interesting effect, if a placeholder is at the end of a route and

there is already a stash value of the same name present, it automatically

becomes optional.

  # / -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', mymessage => 'hi'}

  $r->route('/:mymessage')

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', mymessage => 'hi');

This is also the case if multiple placeholders are right after another and not

separated by other characters than C</>.

  # /           -> {controller => 'foo',   action => 'bar'}

  # /users      -> {controller => 'users', action => 'bar'}

  # /users/list -> {controller => 'users', action => 'list'}

  $r->route('/:controller/:action')

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

Special stash values like C<controller> and C<action> can also be

placeholders, which is very convenient especially during development, but

should only be used very carefully, because every controller method becomes a

potential route. All uppercase methods as well as those starting with an

underscore are automatically hidden from the router and you can use

L<Mojolicious::Routes/"hide"> to add additional ones.

  # Hide "create" method in all controllers

  $r->hide('create');

This has already been done for all attributes and methods from

L<Mojolicious::Controller>.

=head2 More restrictive placeholders

A very easy way to make placeholders more restrictive are alternatives, you

just make a list of possible values.

  # /bender -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', name => 'bender'}

  # /leela  -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', name => 'leela'}

  # /fry    -> undef

  $r->route('/:name', name => [qw(bender leela)])

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

You can also adjust the regular expressions behind placeholders to better suit

your needs. Just make sure not to use C<^> and C<$> or capturing groups

C<(...)>, because placeholders become part of a larger regular expression

internally, C<(?:...)> is fine though.

  # /23   -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', number => 23}

  # /test -> undef

  $r->route('/:number', number => qr/\d+/)

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

  # /23   -> undef

  # /test -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', name => 'test'}

  $r->route('/:name', name => qr/[a-zA-Z]+/)

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

This way you get easily readable routes and the raw power of regular

expressions.

=head2 Formats

File extensions like C<.html> and C<.txt> at the end of a route are

automatically detected and stored in the stash value C<format>.

  # /foo      -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  # /foo.html -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', format => 'html'}

  # /foo.txt  -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', format => 'txt'}

  $r->route('/foo')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

This for example allows multiple templates in different formats to share the

same code.

  # /foo      -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  # /foo.html -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', format => 'html'}

  $r->route('/foo')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

Restrictive placeholders can also be used.

  # /foo.rss -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', format => 'rss'}

  # /foo.xml -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', format => 'xml'}

  # /foo.txt -> undef

  $r->route('/foo', format => [qw(rss xml)])

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

Or you can just disable format detection, which gets inherited by nested

routes and allows selective re-enabling.

  # /foo      -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  # /foo.html -> undef

  $r->route('/foo', format => 0)->to('foo#bar');

  # /foo      -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  # /foo.html -> undef

  # /baz      -> undef

  # /baz.txt  -> {controller => 'baz', action => 'yada', format => 'txt'}

  # /baz.html -> {controller => 'baz', action => 'yada', format => 'html'}

  # /baz.xml  -> undef

  my $inactive = $r->route(format => 0);

  $inactive->route('/foo')->to('foo#bar');

  $inactive->route('/baz', format => [qw(txt html)])->to('baz#yada');

=head2 Named routes

Naming your routes will allow backreferencing in many methods and helpers

throughout the whole framework, most of them internally rely on

L<Mojolicious::Controller/"url_for"> for this.

  # /foo/abc -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', name => 'abc'}

  $r->route('/foo/:name')->name('test')

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

  # Generate URL "/foo/abc" for route "test"

  my $url = $self->url_for('test');

  # Generate URL "/foo/sebastian" for route "test"

  my $url = $self->url_for('test', name => 'sebastian');

  # Generate URL "http://127.0.0.1:3000/foo/sebastian" for route "test"

  my $url = $self->url_for('test', name => 'sebastian')->to_abs;

Nameless routes get an automatically generated one assigned that is simply

equal to the route itself without non-word characters.

  # /foo/bar ("foobar")

  $r->route('/foo/bar')->to('test#stuff');

  # Generate URL "/foo/bar"

  my $url = $self->url_for('foobar');

To refer to the current route you can use the reserved name C<current> or no

name at all.

  # Generate URL for current route

  my $url = $self->url_for('current');

  my $url = $self->url_for;

To check or get the name of the current route you can use the helper

L<Mojolicious::Plugin::DefaultHelpers/"current_route">.

  # Name for current route

  my $name = $self->current_route;

  # Check route name in code shared by multiple routes

  $self->stash(button => 'green') if $self->current_route('login');

=head2 HTTP methods

The method L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"via"> allows only specific HTTP

methods to pass.

  # GET /bye    -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bye'}

  # POST /bye   -> undef

  # DELETE /bye -> undef

  $r->route('/bye')->via('GET')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bye');

  # GET /bye    -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bye'}

  # POST /bye   -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bye'}

  # DELETE /bye -> undef

  $r->route('/bye')->via('GET', 'POST')

    ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bye');

With one small exception, HEAD requests are considered equal to GET and

content will not be sent with the response.

  # GET /test  -> {controller => 'bar', action => 'test'}

  # HEAD /test -> {controller => 'bar', action => 'test'}

  # PUT /test  -> undef

  $r->route('/test')->via('GET')->to(controller => 'bar', action => 'test');

=head2 WebSockets

With the method L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"websocket"> you can restrict

access to WebSocket handshakes, which are normal GET requests with some

additional information.

  # /echo (WebSocket handshake)

  $r->websocket('/echo')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'echo');

  # Controller

  package MyApp::Foo;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious::Controller';

  # Action

  sub echo {

    my $self = shift;

    $self->on(message => sub {

      my ($self, $msg) = @_;

      $self->send("echo: $msg");

    });

  }

  1;

The connection gets established when you respond to the WebSocket handshake

request with a C<101> response status, which happens automatically if you

subscribe to an event with L<Mojolicious::Controller/"on"> or send a message

with L<Mojolicious::Controller/"send"> right away.

=head2 Bridges

Bridge routes created with the method L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"bridge">

can be used to share code with multiple nested routes, because unlike normal

nested routes, they always match and result in additional dispatch cycles.

  # /foo     -> undef

  # /foo/bar -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'baz'}

  #             {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  my $foo = $r->bridge('/foo')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'baz');

  $foo->route('/bar')->to(action => 'bar');

The actual bridge code needs to return a true value or the dispatch chain will

be broken, this makes bridges a very powerful tool for authentication.

  # /foo     -> undef

  # /foo/bar -> {cb => sub {...}}

  #             {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  my $foo = $r->bridge('/foo')->to(cb => sub {

    my $self = shift;

    # Authenticated

    return 1 if $self->req->headers->header('X-Bender');

    # Not authenticated

    $self->render(text => "You're not Bender.");

    return undef;

  });

  $foo->route('/bar')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

Broken dispatch chains can be continued by calling the method

L<Mojolicious::Controller/"continue">, this allows for example non-blocking

operations to finish before reaching the next dispatch cycle.

  # /foo     -> undef

  # /foo/bar -> {cb => sub {...}}

  #          -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  my $foo = $r->bridge('/foo')->to(cb => sub {

    my $self = shift;

    # Wait 3 seconds and then give visitors a 50% chance to continue

    Mojo::IOLoop->timer(3 => sub {

      # Loser

      return $self->render(text => 'No luck.') unless int rand 2;

      # Winner

      $self->continue;

    });

    return undef;

  });

  $foo->route('/bar')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

=head2 More convenient routes

From the tutorial you should already know L<Mojolicious::Lite> routes, which

are in fact just a small convenience layer around everything described above

and accessible through methods like L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"get"> as

part of the normal router.

  # POST /foo -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'abc'}

  $r->post('/foo')->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'abc');

  # PATCH /bar -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar', test => 23}

  $r->patch('/bar')->to('foo#bar', test => 23);

  # GET /baz -> {template => 'foo/bar'}

  $r->get('/baz')->to(template => 'foo/bar');

  # * /yada.txt  -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'yada', format => 'txt'}

  # * /yada.json -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'yada', format => 'json'}

  $r->any('/yada' => [format => [qw(txt json)]])->to('foo#yada');

  # GET   /foo/bar  -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  # PUT   /foo/baz  -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'baz'}

  # PATCH /foo      -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'yada'}

  my $foo = $r->any('/foo')->to('foo#');

  $foo->get('/bar')->to('#bar');

  $foo->put('/baz')->to('#baz');

  $foo->patch->to('#yada');

This makes the process of growing your L<Mojolicious::Lite> prototypes into

full L<Mojolicious> applications very straightforward.

  # POST /bar

  $r->post('/bar' => sub {

    my $self = shift;

    $self->render(text => 'Just like a Mojolicious::Lite action.');

  });

Even the more abstract concepts are available with methods like

L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"under">.

  # GET  /yada

  # POST /yada

  my $yada = $r->under('/yada');

  $yada->get(sub {

    my $self = shift;

    $self->render(text => 'Hello.');

  });

  $yada->post(sub {

    my $self = shift;

    $self->render(text => 'Go away.');

  });

=head2 Hooks

Hooks operate outside the routing system and allow you to extend

the framework itself by sharing code with all requests indiscriminately

through L<Mojolicious/"hook">, which makes them a very powerful tool

especially for plugins.

  # Application

  package MyApp;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious';

  sub startup {

    my $self = shift;

    # Check all requests for a "/test" prefix

    $self->hook(before_dispatch => sub {

      my $c = shift;

      $c->render(text => 'This request did not reach the router.')

        if $c->req->url->path->contains('/test');

    });

    # These will not be reached if the hook above renders a response

    my $r = $self->routes;

    $r->get('/welcome')->to('foo#welcome');

    $r->post('/bye')->to('foo#bye');

  }

  1;

Post-processing the response to set additional headers is a very common use.

  # Make sure static files are cached

  $self->hook(after_static => sub {

    my $c = shift;

    $c->res->headers->cache_control('max-age=3600, must-revalidate');

  });

Same for pre-processing the request.

  # Allow "_method" query parameter to override request method

  $self->hook(before_dispatch => sub {

    my $c = shift;

    return unless my $method = $c->req->url->query->param('_method');

    $c->req->method($method);

  });

Or more advanced extensions to add monitoring to your application.

  # Forward exceptions to a web service

  $self->hook(after_dispatch => sub {

    my $c = shift;

    return unless my $e = $c->stash('exception');

    $c->ua->post('https://example.com/bugs' => form => {exception => $e});

  });

You can even extend much of the core functionality.

  # Make controller object available to actions as $_

  $self->hook(around_action => sub {

    my ($next, $c, $action, $last) = @_;

    local $_ = $c;

    return $next->();

  });

  # Pass route name as argument to actions

  $self->hook(around_action => sub {

    my ($next, $c, $action, $last) = @_;

    return $c->$action($c->current_route);

  });

For a full list of available hooks see L<Mojolicious/"HOOKS">.

=head2 Shortcuts

You can also add your own shortcuts with L<Mojolicious::Routes/"add_shortcut">

to make route generation more expressive.

  # Simple "resource" shortcut

  $r->add_shortcut(resource => sub {

    my ($r, $name) = @_;

    # Generate "/$name" route

    my $resource = $r->route("/$name")->to("$name#");

    # Handle POST requests

    $resource->post->to('#create')->name("create_$name");

    # Handle GET requests

    $resource->get->to('#show')->name("show_$name");

    # Handle OPTIONS requests

    $resource->options(sub {

      my $self = shift;

      $self->res->headers->allow('POST, GET, OPTIONS');

      $self->render(data => '', status => 204);

    });

    return $resource;

  });

  # POST    /user -> {controller => 'user', action => 'create'}

  # GET     /user -> {controller => 'user', action => 'show'}

  # OPTIONS /user

  $r->resource('user');

Shortcuts can lead to anything, routes, bridges or maybe even both. And watch

out for quicksand!

=head2 Introspection

The C<routes> command can be used from the command line to list all available

routes together with name and underlying regular expressions.

  $ ./myapp.pl routes -v

  /foo/:name  GET   fooname  ^/foo/([^/\.]+))(?:\.([^/]+)$)?

  /bar        POST  bar      ^/bar(?:\.([^/]+)$)?

=head1 ADVANCED

Less commonly used and more powerful features.

=head2 IRIs

IRIs are handled transparently, that means paths are guaranteed to be

unescaped and decoded from bytes to characters.

  # GET /☃ (unicode snowman) -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'snowman'}

  $r->get('/☃')->to('foo#snowman');

=head2 Rearranging routes

Until the first request has been handled, all routes can still be moved around

or even removed with methods like L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"add_child">

and L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"remove">. Especially for rearranging routes

created by plugins this can be very useful.

  # GET /example/show -> {controller => 'example', action => 'show'}

  my $show = $r->get('/show')->to('example#show');

  $r->any('/example')->add_child($show);

  # Nothing

  $r->get('/secrets/show')->to('secrets#show')->name('show_secrets');

  $r->find('show_secrets')->remove;

To find routes by their name you can use L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"find">.

=head2 Conditions

Sometimes you might need a little more power, for example to check the

C<User-Agent> header in multiple routes. This is where conditions come into

play, they are basically router plugins.

  # Simple "User-Agent" condition

  $r->add_condition(

    agent => sub {

      my ($route, $c, $captures, $pattern) = @_;

      # User supplied regular expression

      return undef unless $pattern && ref $pattern eq 'Regexp';

      # Match "User-Agent" header and return true on success

      my $agent = $c->req->headers->user_agent;

      return 1 if $agent && $agent =~ $pattern;

      # No success

      return undef;

    }

  );

  # /firefox_only (Firefox) -> {controller => 'foo', action => 'bar'}

  $r->get('/firefox_only')->over(agent => qr/Firefox/)->to('foo#bar');

The method L<Mojolicious::Routes/"add_condition"> registers the new condition

in the router, while L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"over"> actually applies it

to the route.

=head2 Condition plugins

You can also package your conditions as reusable plugins.

  # Plugin

  package Mojolicious::Plugin::WerewolfCondition;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious::Plugin';

  use Astro::MoonPhase;

  sub register {

    my ($self, $app) = @_;

    # Add "werewolf" condition

    $app->routes->add_condition(werewolf => sub {

      my ($route, $c, $captures, $days) = @_;

      # Keep the werewolves out!

      return undef if abs(14 - (phase(time))[2]) > ($days / 2);

      # It's ok, no werewolf

      return 1;

    });

  }

  1;

Now just load the plugin and you are ready to use the condition in all your

applications.

  # Application

  package MyApp;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious';

  sub startup {

    my $self = shift;

    # Plugin

    $self->plugin('WerewolfCondition');

    # /hideout (keep them out for 4 days after full moon)

    $self->routes->get('/hideout')->over(werewolf => 4)

      ->to(controller => 'foo', action => 'bar');

  }

  1;

=head2 Embedding applications

You can easily embed whole applications simply by using them instead of a

controller. This allows for example the use of the L<Mojolicious::Lite> domain

specific language in normal L<Mojolicious> controllers.

  # Controller

  package MyApp::Bar;

  use Mojolicious::Lite;

  # /hello

  get '/hello' => sub {

    my $self = shift;

    my $name = $self->param('name');

    $self->render(text => "Hello $name.");

  };

  1;

With the method L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"detour"> which is very similar

to L<Mojolicious::Routes::Route/"to">, you can allow the route to partially

match and use only the remaining path in the embedded application, the base

path will be passed along in the C<path> stash value.

  # /foo/*

  $r->any('/foo')->detour('bar#', name => 'Mojo');

A minimal embeddable application is nothing more than a subclass of L<Mojo>,

containing a C<handler> method accepting L<Mojolicious::Controller> objects.

  package MyApp::Bar;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojo';

  sub handler {

    my ($self, $c) = @_;

    $c->res->code(200);

    my $name = $c->param('name');

    $c->res->body("Hello $name.");

  }

  1;

You can also just use L<Mojolicious::Plugin::Mount> to mount whole

self-contained applications under a prefix.

  use Mojolicious::Lite;

  # Whole application mounted under "/prefix"

  plugin Mount => {'/prefix' => '/home/sri/myapp.pl'};

  # Normal route

  get '/' => sub { shift->render(text => 'Hello World!') };

  app->start;

=head2 Application plugins

Embedding L<Mojolicious> applications is easy, but it gets even easier if you

package the whole thing as a self contained reusable plugin.

  # Plugin

  package Mojolicious::Plugin::MyEmbeddedApp;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious::Plugin';

  sub register {

    my ($self, $app) = @_;

    # Automatically add route

    $app->routes->any('/foo')->detour(app => EmbeddedApp::app());

  }

  package EmbeddedApp;

  use Mojolicious::Lite;

  get '/bar' => 'bar';

  1;

  __DATA__

  @@ bar.html.ep

  Hello World!

The C<app> stash value, which won't be inherited by nested routes, can be used

for already instantiated applications. Now just load the plugin and you're

done.

  # Application

  package MyApp;

  use Mojo::Base 'Mojolicious';

  sub startup {

    my $self = shift;

    # Plugin

    $self->plugin('MyEmbeddedApp');

  }

  1;

=head1 MORE

You can continue with L<Mojolicious::Guides> now or take a look at the

L<Mojolicious wiki|http://github.com/kraih/mojo/wiki>, which contains a lot

more documentation and examples by many different authors.

=head1 SUPPORT

If you have any questions the documentation might not yet answer, don't

hesitate to ask on the

L<mailing-list|http://groups.google.com/group/mojolicious> or the official IRC

channel C<#mojo> on C<irc.perl.org>.

=cut