Zend Framework routes always seem to point to current URL?

[Chris Corbyn]

I must be doing something wrong in my ZF newbiness, but for some reason anything I do that tries to generate a URL from the route map is just returning the current URL unless I make the route name explicit.

I'll to show what I mean.

routemap.php which is included in my bootstrap file:

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<?php
 
/*
 swiftmailer.org route map file.
 Adds routes for the front controller.
 */
 
$router = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->getRouter();
 
$router->addRoute('index', new Zend_Controller_Router_Route(
  '/',
  array('controller'=>'index', 'action'=>'index')
  ));
 
$router->addRoute('docs', new Zend_Controller_Router_Route(
  '/docs',
  array('controller'=>'documentation', 'action'=>'index')
  ));
 
$router->addRoute('docs-file', new Zend_Controller_Router_Route(
  '/docs/:topic',
  array('controller'=>'documentation', 'action'=>'load-file')
  ));
 
unset($router);
 

And in my navigation:

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         <div id="navigation">
            <ul>
              <li><a href="<?php echo $this->url(array('controller'=>'index', 'action'=>'index'), 'index'); ?>">home</a></li>
              <li><a href="<?php echo $this->url(array('controller'=>'download', 'action'=>'index')); ?>">download</a></li>
              <li><a href="<?php echo $this->url(array('controller'=>'documentation', 'action'=>'load-file', 'topic'=>'start'), 'docs-file'); ?>">documentation</a></li>
              <li><a href="#">bugs</a></li>
              <li><a href="#">contact</a></li>
              <li class="tab corners top right left"><a href="#">download 4.0.0</a></li>
            </ul>
          </div>

If I'm at the "start" page of the docs, then my URL is at /docs/start. The link for "downloads" then points to /docs/start, instead of /download, because that is the current page.

If I'm on the home page, then my current URL is / and therefore ZF is trying to link my "downloads" URL to /.

I've had this working in another project so I'm confused what I've done wrong here

Notice in my navigation, the URLs for "documentation" and "home" explicitly have the route name parameter in them? That's because if I take it out ZF tries to just generate a URL that is the same as the current URL.

Any clues?

[pytrin]

The third parameter the url helper takes is a boolean determining whether to override the default parameters in the route. For some reason its default value is 'false', so you should pass 'true' as the third parameter.

[Chris Corbyn]

The third parameter the url helper takes is a boolean determining whether to override the default parameters in the route. For some reason its default value is 'false', so you should pass 'true' as the third parameter.

Ah sweet thanks. It still doesn't seem to work though

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<?php echo $this->url(array('controller'=>'download', 'action'=>'index'), null, true); ?>

That just prints the current URL that the user is at. Also, if I leave out the route name of my other routes ZF exhibits this sort of behaviour.

I'm really confused what I've done

EDIT | Full source is here if it helps http://github.com/swiftmailer/swiftmail ... ree/master

[Chris Corbyn]

So I've discovered that if I remove the explicit "/" route from my route map then the URLs are created, but they all use the default route rather than the routes given in my route map.

Hmmm....

These are my routes now:

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$router->addRoute('docs', new Zend_Controller_Router_Route(
  'docs',
  array('controller'=>'documentation', 'action'=>'index')
  ));
 
$router->addRoute('docs-file', new Zend_Controller_Router_Route(
  'docs/:topic',
  array('controller'=>'documentation', 'action'=>'load-file')
  ));

[pytrin]

possibly you are using rewritebase in your htaccess? I use trailing slashes in my routes and they work ok

[Weirdan]

Chris, have you solved this? I'm facing the same problem. I'm not very keen on going through the code and adding 'default' route name to all url() calls just because I added another route (we were using standard module/controller/action route exclusively).

[Chris Corbyn]

Chris, have you solved this? I'm facing the same problem. I'm not very keen on going through the code and adding 'default' route name to all url() calls just because I added another route (we were using standard module/controller/action route exclusively).

Solved it yeah. Personally I think it's the most stupid router system I've ever used but here's how it works.

1. All routes have a name associated with them.
2. When you go to a certain URL, one of those routes is used to load the page.
3. When you call $this->url() in the view, if you don't pass a route name, the route found by (2) is used to create the URL
4. If you pass a route name (which you should do based on the above) then it will use that route, rather than the currently used one (i.e rather than the one that matches your request URI)

This seems stupid to me. But that's how it works. I barely ever generate URLs that will be created based on the same routing rule as the one used for the current URL, but nontheless ZF seem to think this is clear and sensible.

I prefer that my router finds the "best" route based on the parameters you give it.

[Weirdan]

So the only option is to mention route name in url() calls explicitly?

[Chris Corbyn]

So the only option is to mention route name in url() calls explicitly?

Basically yes. Crap? Correct.

I wonder how easy it is to replace ZF's router with your own implementation. Personally I prefer a rails-style system. ZF's router is really unpredictable and fragile unless you use a route name in every url() call IMHO.

[Christopher]

I prefer that my router finds the "best" route based on the parameters you give it.

Can you give some examples on how you would like to to work?

You may want to look into Horde Routes...

[Chris Corbyn]

I prefer that my router finds the "best" route based on the parameters you give it.

Can you give some examples on how you would like to to work?

Route map:

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$map->addRoute('/documentation/:topic',
  array('controller'=>'documentation', 'action'=>'load-topic'));
 
$map->addRoute('/documentation/:version/:topic',
  array('controller'=>'documentation', 'action'=>'load-topic-for-version'));

Now, in ZF, if I'm viewing the URL:

http://site.tld/documentation/introduction

Then the route that is being used is the first one. So if my page makes any calls to url() without a route name it will try to use this route to create the URL.

For example, if I want to say:

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You are viewing the documentation for version 1.2.  To see the 1.4 documentation for this topic,
<a href="<?php echo $this->url(array(
  'controller'=>'documentation', 'action'=>'load-topic-for-version',
  'version'=>'1.4', 'topic'=>$topicName
)); ?>">click here</a>.

This is incredibly frustrating and confusing, because ZF completely ignores the fact you have a more suitable route that fits this set of parameters. If you're viewing a page that uses the default route, then ZF will create a URL like:

http://site.tld/documentation/load-topi ... troduction

When what you'd expect is:

http://site.tld/documentation/1.4/introduction

That's exactly what a rails-style route map would do. It matches the route that includes all of your parameters (or a wildcard). If more than 1 route happens to match, then it takes the shortest (presumably cleanest) one of the two.

In ZF, if you're on a page that doesn't use the default route, and the parameters passed to url() do not work with the route, it seems it just gives up and returns the page's request URI instead (I guess under-the-surface it uses the current request parameters as a fallback).

You may want to look into Horde Routes...

Thanks, I'll check it out. I've written my own in the past too. They're not that hard to do really.

[Benjamin]

Seeing this makes me glad I'm using symfony. Here's a sample routing.yml file:

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# default rules
homepage:
  url:   /
  param: { module: content, action: index }
 
content:
  url: /:action.html
  param: { module: content }
 
default_index:
  url:   /:module
  param: { action: index }
 
default:
  url:   /:module/:action/*
 

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<?php echo link_to('Home', '@content?action=index', array('class' => 'menu_lnk')); ?>
<?php echo link_to('Home', 'content/index', array('class' => 'menu_lnk')); ?>
 

[Christopher]

Now, in ZF, if I'm viewing the URL:

http://site.tld/documentation/introduction

Then the route that is being used is the first one. So if my page makes any calls to url() without a route name it will try to use this route to create the URL.

For example, if I want to say:

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You are viewing the documentation for version 1.2.  To see the 1.4 documentation for this topic,
<a href="<?php echo $this->url(array(
  'controller'=>'documentation', 'action'=>'load-topic-for-version',
  'version'=>'1.4', 'topic'=>$topicName
)); ?>">click here</a>.

This is incredibly frustrating and confusing, because ZF completely ignores the fact you have a more suitable route that fits this set of parameters. If you're viewing a page that uses the default route, then ZF will create a URL like:

http://site.tld/documentation/load-topi ... troduction

When what you'd expect is:

http://site.tld/documentation/1.4/introduction

I think maybe it is doing what it thinks is the right thing because you have 'action'=>'load-topic-for-version', in your array.

[Weirdan]

I think maybe it is doing what it thinks is the right thing because you have 'action'=>'load-topic-for-version', in your array.

Nope. It uses current route, unless you explicitly specify a route name:

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class Zend_View_Helper_Url extends Zend_View_Helper_Abstract
{
    /**
     * Generates an url given the name of a route.
     *
     * @access public
     *
     * @param  array $urlOptions Options passed to the assemble method of the Route object.
     * @param  mixed $name The name of a Route to use. If null it will use the current Route    <===================== It's documented, here
     * @param  bool $reset Whether or not to reset the route defaults with those provided
     * @return string Url for the link href attribute.
     */
    public function url(array $urlOptions = array(), $name = null, $reset = false, $encode = true)
    {
        $router = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->getRouter();
        return $router->assemble($urlOptions, $name, $reset, $encode);
    }
}