Slim 3 - how to use or-operator in the route?

Question

How can I do 'or' in the route?

for instance, /about and /fr/about are pointing to the same objects/classes/methods. So instead of:

$app->get('/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
    // same staff
});

$app->get('/{language:[fr|en]+}/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
    // same staff
});

I tried with this:

$app->get('/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}|/{language:[fr|en]+}/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
    // same staff
});

I get this error:

Type: FastRoute\BadRouteException
Message: Cannot use the same placeholder "url" twice
File: /var/www/mysite/vendor/nikic/fast-route/src/DataGenerator/RegexBasedAbstract.php

Any ideas what how to resolve this issue?

Or any solutions to avoid repeating the code?

the error comes from your last route pattern, you reference url twice... you need to not use the same token twice. — geggleto, Sep 14 '16 at 17:57
To not duplicate code may look into http://www.slimframework.com/docs/objects/router.html#container-resolution — danopz, Sep 14 '16 at 22:15

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 14 '16 at 19:30

Here's why what you are trying does not work.

Your Routing:

$app->get('/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
    // same staff
});

$app->get('/{language:[fr|en]+}/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
    // same staff
});

FastRoute finds the first match and dispatches. If you look at this, your first route matches both /about and /fr/about So it gets dispatched first... In fact, it will always dispatch first, always.

What you actually want is to reorder the route definitions.

$app->get('/{language:[fr|en]+}/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
    // same staff
});
// ADD OTHER ROUTES HERE

// CATCH ALL
$app->get('/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
    // same staff
});

To solve the URL duplication problem... simply define a different token.

$app->get('/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}|/{language:[fr|en]+}/{url2:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}', function (Request $request, Response $response, array $args) {
    // same staff
});

with `'/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}|/{language:[fr|en]+}/{url2:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}' ` I will always get a 404 page. — Run, Sep 15 '16 at 04:40
I'm not really a regex expert... :D What exactly are you trying to do? — geggleto, Sep 15 '16 at 12:59

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 02 '16 at 19:40

If changing the order of the placeholders is possible for you, you could implement it in this manner:

$app->get('/{url:[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+}[/{language:[en|fr]+}]', function($request, $response, $args) {
    // code here...
});

By "changing the order of the placeholders" I mean the url comes first, then the language, so instead of fr/about you use about/fr.

The solution utilizes Slim's built-in optional segments: note the square brackets that wrap "language" placeholder.

It, however, requires that the optional segments are placed at the end of the route, otherwise you get FastRoute\BadRouteException.

Slim 3 - how to use or-operator in the route?

2 Answers2