Laravel Routing and Controller for Search - php

Question

I'm building my first basic laravel web app, after following a few tutorials this is the first one I'm tinkering with on my own. I'm running into to some trouble with routing to a controller and then getting the correct url.
Ideally at this point I should only have two routes / and /{user}. On the homepage you can search via a form for the user and the form should take you to /{user}.
Routes (I have three cause I'm still trying to get this to work, and I think I need a POST):
Route::get('/', 'HomeController#index');
Route::get('/{user}', 'HomeController#student');
Route::post('/', 'HomeController#studentLookUp');
Home Controller:
public function index()
{
return View::make('helpdesk');
}
public function student($user) {
return View::make('selfservice')
->with('user', $user);
}
public function studentLookUp() {
$user = Input::get('ID');
return View::make('selfservice')
->with('user', $user);
}
Form:
{{ Form::open(array('class'=>'navbar-form navbar-left', 'role'=>'search'), array('action' => 'HomeController#student')) }}
<div class="form-group">
{{ Form::text('ID', '', array('placeholder'=>'ID', 'class'=>'form-control') ); }}
</div>
{{ Form::button('Search', array('class'=>'btn btn-default')) }}
{{ Form::close() }}
At this point I can search from the homepage ('/') and it will take me back to the homepage but with the searched for user which is how I want it to work except it doesn't have the right url of homepage.com/username.
Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

First register a route to listen your search request:
1. Search Route:
Register search route.
//route search
Route::get('/search',['uses' => 'SearchController#getSearch','as' => 'search']);
2. Search View:-
Now create a search form in a view:-
<form action="/search" method="get">
<input type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search.."/>
<button type="submit">Search</button>
</form>
3. SearchController :
Now create SearchController to handle your searching logic.
SearchController :
<?php
class SearchController extends \BaseController {
public function getSearch()
{
//get keywords input for search
$keyword= Input::get('q');
//search that student in Database
$students= Student::find($keyword);
//return display search result to user by using a view
return View::make('selfservice')->with('student', $students);
}
}
Now you have to create one view selfservice to display your search result.
4. Selfservice View:
#foreach ($students as $key=> $student)
<div>
{{$student->name}}
</div>
#endforeach
Here for each student result, one link will be created. That link will be link:-
website.domain/{student}
5. Update Routes for Student
Route::get('/{student}',['uses' => 'HomeController#student','as' => 'student.show']);
UPDATE updated the answer to get student page directly
To redirect from search to website.domain\{user} follow these steps:-
1. Modify SearchController
<?php
class SearchController extends \BaseController {
public function getSearch()
{
//get keywords input for search
$keyword= Input::get('q');
//search that student in Database
$student= Student::find($keyword);
//redirect directly to student.show route with student detail
return Redirect::route('student.show', array('student' => $student));
}
}
2. Now add a function for Route student.show in HomeController
Route::get('/{student}',['uses' => 'HomeController#student','as' => 'student.show']);
In HomeController
public function student($student)
{
//here display student detail
}