Laravel Basics: Routing and Controllers

Routes and Controllers

2 min read Last updated 46 minutes ago

Every request enters Laravel through a route, which maps a URL to a controller action.

Defining routes

php

<?php
use App\Http\Controllers\WelcomeController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::get('/', [WelcomeController::class, 'index']);
Route::get('/about', [WelcomeController::class, 'about']);
Route::post('/contact', [ContactController::class, 'store']);

Route verbs map to HTTP methods: get, post, put, patch, delete.

Generating a controller

bash

php artisan make:controller WelcomeController

The controller

php

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\View\View;

class WelcomeController extends Controller
{
    public function index(): View
    {
        return view('welcome');
    }
}

Controllers keep routes thin and logic testable.

Route parameters

php

Route::get('/users/{id}', [UserController::class, 'show']);

// UserController
public function show(int $id): View
{
    return view('users.show', ['id' => $id]);
}

Route model binding

Laravel can inject the model directly using a typed parameter named after the route segment:

php

Route::get('/posts/{post}', [PostController::class, 'show']);

// PostController
public function show(Post $post): View
{
    return view('posts.show', ['post' => $post]);
}

✓

Route names

Give routes names with ->name('posts.show') so URLs can be generated with route('posts.show', $post) instead of hard-coding paths.

Naming routes

php

Route::get('/posts/{post}', [PostController::class, 'show'])->name('posts.show');

blade

<a href="{{ route('posts.show', $post) }}">Read more</a>

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