which URL pattern is better, action/id or id/action

Question

I would like to know which of these 2 patterns would be better:

/photos/123/edit

or

/photos/edit/123

Currently I am using the first, which gives me a Whoops, looks like something went wrong. when I try /photos/123/editxx instead of a 404 not found.

routes:

I am unsure where to look for the mistake, these are the photos routes:

Route::get('photos/randpics','PhotosController@randpics');
Route::get('photos/{id}/edit','PhotosController@getEdit')->middleware(['auth']);
Route::post('photos/{id}/edit','PhotosController@postEdit')->middleware(['auth']);
Route::post('photos/{id}/retag', ['as' => 'photos.retag', 'uses' => 'PhotosController@retag'])->middleware(['auth']);
Route::post('photos/{id}/delete','PhotosController@delete')->middleware(['auth']);
Route::get('photos/{id}/albums', 'PhotosController@getAlbums')->middleware(['auth']);
Route::post('photos/{id}/albums', 'PhotosController@postAlbums')->middleware(['auth']);
Route::get('photos/{id}/detail','PhotosController@detail');
Route::get('photos/{id}','PhotosController@single');
Route::post('photos/like', 'PhotosController@postLike')->middleware(['auth']);
Route::post('photos/unlike', 'PhotosController@postUnlike')->middleware(['auth']);
Route::get('photos','PhotosController@index');

getEdit() and postEdit():

The same error, complaining about an undefined variable in the master layout template appears, when I enter /photos/123/a/a/a/ for example.

public function getEdit(Request $request, $id = null)
{
    $pic = Pic::findOrFail($id);

    if(Gate::denies('edit-pic',$pic)) {
        abort(403);
    }

    $pic->text = htmlspecialchars($pic->text);

    $years = array_combine(range(date("Y"), 1960), range(date("Y"), 1960));

    $location = $pic->location;
    $tags = $pic->tags;
    $tagsarray = $pic->tagNames();
    $albums = $pic->albums;

    $locations = array();
    $getlocations = Location::orderBy('city')->get();
    foreach($getlocations as $gl)
    {
        $locations[$gl->id] = $gl->city.' ('.$gl->country.')';
    }

    $cats = Cat::lists('cat','cat')->all();

    return view('photos.edit',compact('pic','location','tags','tagsarray','albums','locations','cats','years'));
}


public function postEdit(Request $request, $id = null)
{
    $pic = Pic::findOrFail($id);

    if(Gate::denies('edit-pic',$pic)) {
        abort(403);
    }

    $this->validate($request, [
        'title'    => 'max:200',
        'text'     => 'max:3000',
        'location' => 'required|exists:locations,id',
        'cat'      => 'required|exists:cats,cat',
        'jahrprod' => 'date_format:Y'
    ]);

    $pic->title = trim($request->input('title'));
    $pic->text = trim($request->input('text'));
    $pic->jahrprod = ($request->input('jahrprod')) ? $request->input('jahrprod') : null;
    $pic->location_id = $request->input('location');
    $pic->cat = $request->input('cat');
    $pic->save();

    #mail
    $maildata = array(
        'msg' => 'picture '.$id.' ( '.$request->input('title').' ) was edited by '.Auth::user()->username
    );

    Mail::send(['text' => 'emails.empty'], $maildata, function($message){
        $message->to('xx@yy.de')->from('xx@yy.de')->subject('picture edited');
    });

    return back()->with('success','photo information updated');
}

Controller.php

It seems, with more than 2 URL segments, the Controller.php is not working properly. /domain.xy/1/2 shows the 8 but /domain.xy/1/2/3 throws the error Undefined variable: photos_online

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Bus\DispatchesJobs;
use Illuminate\Routing\Controller as BaseController;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Validation\ValidatesRequests;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\Access\AuthorizesRequests;

use Auth;
use Cache;
use DB;

use App\Pic;
use App\Upload;

use Carbon\Carbon;

class Controller extends BaseController
{
    use AuthorizesRequests, DispatchesJobs, ValidatesRequests;

    public function __construct()
    {
        dd(8);
        //.......
    }
}

Answer 1

If you follow laravel's resource controller guidelines https://laravel.com/docs/5.2/controllers#restful-resource-controllers

You should go with the first one.

But to fix your problem show us your route and controller function handling it.

Update

open AppServiceProvider located in app/http/providers and replace boot() function with this

public function boot()
{
    //initilizw $photos_online
    $photos_online = Cache::rememberForever('index_countpics', function() 
    { 
        return Pic::count(); 
    }); 

    #pics today 
    if (Cache::has('pics_today')){ 
        $pics_today = Cache::get('pics_today'); 
    }else{ 
        $pics_today = Pic::whereRaw('DATE(created_at) = DATE(NOW())')->count(); 
        Cache::put('pics_today', $pics_today, Carbon::tomorrow()); 
    } 

    # count waiting uploads 
    $waiting_uploads = Cache::rememberForever('waiting_uploads', function() 
    { 
        return Upload::where('accepted',0)->where('infos',1)->count(); 
    }); 

    # user online 
    $client_ip = request()->ip(); 

    $check = DB::table('useronline')->where('ip', $client_ip)->first(); 

    $username = (Auth::guest()) ? null : Auth::user()->username; 
    $displayname = (Auth::guest()) ? null : Auth::user()->displayname; 

    if(is_null($check)){ 
        DB::table('useronline')->insert(['ip' => $client_ip, 'datum' => DB::raw('NOW()'), 'username' => $username, 'displayname' => $displayname]); 
    }else{ 
        DB::table('useronline')->where('ip', $client_ip)->update(['datum' => DB::raw('NOW()'), 'username' => $username, 'displayname' => $displayname]); 
    } 

    DB::delete('DELETE FROM useronline WHERE DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 3 MINUTE) > datum'); 

    $users_online = DB::table('useronline')->whereNotNull('username')->get(); 
    $guests_online = DB::table('useronline')->count(); 

    #unread messages 
    $unread_messages = 0; 
    if(Auth::check()){ 
        $unread_messages = Auth::user()->newThreadsCount(); 
    } 

    view()->share('photos_online',$photos_online); 
    view()->share('pics_today',$pics_today); 
    view()->share('waiting_uploads',$waiting_uploads); 
    view()->share('users_online',$users_online); 
    view()->share('guests_online',$guests_online); 
    view()->share('unread_messages',$unread_messages);
}