Laravel 4 PHP: Routes Order Issue

Question

EDIT: I am using Laravel 4 PHP and initially I thought this problem was related to the 'link_to_route' method on a webpage so you can simply link to another webpage that does not contain any dynamic data.

However, I am discovering that the order you list your Routes will ultimately determine if your routes are successfully reached or not.

Authors2.php (Controller)

class Authors2_Controller extends BaseController {

public $restful = true;

public function contact() {

    return View::make('authors2.index')
    ->with('title','Authors and Books')
    ->with('authors2', Author2::orderBy('name')->get());
}

public function getnew() {

    return View::make('authors2.new')
        ->with('title', 'Add New Author');
}

Routes.php

Route::get('authors2', array('as'=>'authors2', 'uses' =>'Authors2_Controller@contact'));

Route::get('authors2/new', array('as'=>'new_author', 'uses'=>'Authors2_Controller@getnew'));

index.blade.php (view)

@extends('layouts.default')

@section('content')
<h1>Authors2 Home Page </h1>

<ul>
@foreach($authors2 as $author2)
    <li>{{ link_to_route('author2', $author2->name, $parameters = array($author2->id)) }}</li>
@endforeach 
</ul>

<p>{{ link_to_route('new_author', 'Add Author') }} </p>

@endsection

When I click on the 'Add Author' link, I get the error 'Trying to get property of non-object' error.

EDIT: So now when I change the order of the routing where if I list the 'authors2/new' route BEFORE the 'authors2' route, the route will actually work:

Route::get('authors2/new', array('as'=>'new_author', 'uses'=>'Authors2_Controller@getnew'));
Route::get('authors2', array('as'=>'authors2', 'uses' =>'Authors2_Controller@contact'));

Does this have to deal with how Routes are first received and if so, why does this happen?

Laravel will return the first route that matches. That's why you should order your routes from the most to the least specific. authors2 is also matched in authors2/new. But because authors2/new is more specific than authors2 it will not match authors2. — Barry127

Jeff P. Jeff P. · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-16T19:54:12

As mentioned by @Barry_127, Laravel will match routes based from most specific to least specific. So its good practice to list your routes in that order.

Laravel 4 PHP: Routes Order Issue

1 Answers