Routing

Kick uses filesystem-based routing to map files under your configured routes directory to available URIs.

Configuration

Use the Application::withRoutes() method to specify the location of your routes directory when instantiating the application. See Getting Started for an example.

Naming conventions

The names of route files and paths will alter their behaviour in different ways:

• Files named __middleware.php specify middleware for the current and child paths. Middleware is discussed later in this section.
• Files named index.php map to the resource / in a given path.
• Names prefixed with an underscore define dynamic URI segments. As an example, /posts/_pid/comments.php would expand to the URI /posts/:pid/comments.
• Using a file extension prefixed with an HTTP method restricts that route to the specified method. As an example, /dashboard.get.php will only be accessible by an HTTP GET request.

Handlers

Route handlers are simply closures that take a Request object and return a primitive PHP type, Element or Response object. Whatever the response, the application will automatically translate it into a Request with appropriate Content-Type header. Route files must return a handler.

<?php

use Kick\Http\Request;
use Kick\View\Element as e;

return fn (Request $request) => e::p('Hello, world!');

The Request object will be injected automatically, and any other type-hinted parameters will also be injected by the service container. To get the value of a dynamic path segment, the Request::$segments array can be used, or a call to Request::get() with the segment name will return its value.

Middleware

A __middleware.php file must return a closure or an array of container service names that resolve to callable. Middleware are very similar to route handlers, but in addition to a Request object they are also passed a callable to be invoked before or after the middleware has done its work. This callable executes the next middleware in the stack, or the route handler if all middleware have been invoked, returning the resulting Response,

The following middleware uses a hypothetical Auth class to protect routes from unauthorized users.

<?php

use Kick\Http\Request;

return function (Request $request, callable $next, Auth $auth) {
    if (!$auth->hasActiveSession() && $request->path !== '/login') {
        return new Response(302, ['location' => '/login']);
    }

    return $next($request);
};

Note that the result of the $next callable is returned. Middleware can also modify responses by doing work after the callable is invoked. Middleware encountered earlier in the path are executed before, or "around", middleware encountered later in the path.