Phalcon route conflict - php

Question

I have a problem with routes on phalcon. I have code:
$router->add('/{aliascat:[0-9\-a-z\-]+}(/?)', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 'category',
'action' => 'view',
'category' => 1,
'lang' => 'md',
))->setName('category_view_cpu');
$router->add('/{lang:[' . $langsDefined . ']{2}+}/{aliascat:[0-9\-a-z\-]+}(/?)', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 'category',
'action' => 'view',
'category' => 2,
'lang' => 1,
))->setName('category_view_cpu');
$router->add('/{controller:[a-z]{3,50}+}(/?)', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 1,
'action' => 'index',
'lang' => 'md',
))->setName('default_module');
$router->add('/{lang:[' . $langsDefined . ']{2}+}/{controller:[a-z]{3,50}+}(/?)', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 2,
'action' => 'index',
'lang' => 1,
))->setName('default_module_lang');
$router->add('/{controller:[a-z]{3,50}+}/:action/', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 1,
'action' => 2,
'lang' => 'md',
))->setName('default_module_controller_action');
$router->add('/{lang:[' . $langsDefined . ']{2}+}/{controller:[a-z]{3,50}+}/:action/', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 2,
'action' => 3,
'lang' => 1,
))->setName('default_module_controller_action_lang');
$router->add('/{controller:[a-z]{3,50}+}/:action/:params/', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 1,
'action' => 2,
'params' => 3,
'lang' => 'md',
))->setName('default_module_controller_action_params');
$router->add('/{lang:[' . $langsDefined . ']{2}+}/{controller:[a-z]{3,50}+}/:action/:params/', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 2,
'action' => 3,
'params' => 4,
'lang' => 1,
))->setName('default_module_controller_action_params_lang');
I get undifined controller for category route, because conflict with default_module route. How I can fix this problem?
I have route: /category-name/
And default: /controller/action/...
Conflict with routes.

Answer 1

Reading your code, I found several improvements that can be made:
1) First, you dont need two hyphens in those regexes. Instead of [0-9\-a-z\-], put [0-9a-z\-].
2) I see there are two repeated category_view_cpu names. Make sure to revise after you copy and paste. ;)
3) The logic for your routes are too broad and thus result in ambiguousness. For example, the routing definition and regex that you have for the category_view_cpu route (1st one) will behave very similar to the default_module route. So, in the 1st route, you are expecting an alphanumeric lowercase string (with optional hyphens), and in the default_module route you are also expecting a letters-only string with a minimum of 3 characters. So, if I type yoursite.com/dummy, the dummy
part will match the 1st route and also the default_module route. Phalcon doesnt have a way to know if dummy is either a controller or a category alias.
I do suggest that you don't make your routes so broad, by using route groups or by specifying controllers for certain routes that will only be handled for any given controller. For example:
$router->add('/categories/{alias:[0-9a-z\-]+}(/?)', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 'categories',
'action' => 'view',
'category' => 1,
'lang' => 'md',
))->setName('category_view_cpu');
Then, below this route ^, you can define the generic/default route that will catch all other requests. Example:
$router->add('/{controller:[a-z]{3,50}+}(/?)', array(
'module' => 'frontend',
'controller' => 1,
'action' => 'index',
'lang' => 'md',
))->setName('default_module');
What will happen with this example is that, if Phalcon gets a URL like /categories, it will match it with the first route that I made. But if it gets a route like: /dummy, then it will not match the first but will match my second route.
Route Groups are also great for helping distinguish and separate your routing logic. I suggest you read it entirely, here: https://docs.phalconphp.com/en/3.2/routing#defining-groups-of-routes