Passing form values with RESTful routing in Laravel 4 - php

Question

I have setup nested RESTful resource routes like so:
Route::group(array('prefix'=>'opening-hours'), function(){
Route::resource('library', 'LibraryController');
Route::resource('library.interval', 'LibraryIntervalController');
});
I have a blade form which has a select dropdown with options populated from the db, like this:
{{ Form::open(array('route' => 'opening-hours.library.show', 'method' => 'GET')) }}
<legend>Select a library to edit</legend>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="">Please select a library to modify its opening hours:</label>
<select class="form-control" name="id" required>
#foreach ($library_options as $id => $name)
<option value="{{ $id }}">{{ $name }}</option>
#endforeach
</select>
</div>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
{{ Form::close() }}
The form submits to the named route:
opening-hours.library.show
The routing itself works but I have a couple of questions about the logistics (I'm a little confused about how to use the routing):
I can get the form to submit to the correct route if I make it a
'GET' request (GET/HEAD opening-hours/library/{library} =>
opening-hours.library.show), as the corresponding POST route does not
exist
how do I pass the user-selected $id to the controller show($id)
method?
when I submit the form, it goes to the URI
"../opening-hours/library/%7Blibrary%7D?id=3". So if the user selects
the library with id=3, how do I make the URI "../opening-hours/library/3"?
Here is my Library controller show method:
/**
* Display the specifed library.
*
* #param int $id
* #return Response
*/
public function show($id)
{
//
return "This is a library with id: " . $id . "!";
}
When I submit the form, the following is displayed:
This is a library with id: {library}!
Of course, I'd want it to display:
This is a library with id: 3!
I'm obviously not understanding something critical about how REST or Laravel or both work here. Any pointers would be very much appreciated, I've spent a day knocking about with this!
Thanks a lot

Answer 1

Try using
$id = Input::get('id');
Documentation
I would also recommend using the provided helpers for forms:
echo Form::select('size', array('L' => 'Large', 'S' => 'Small'));
Documentation

Answer 2

Writing out the problem seemed to help me come up with the solution. It seemed silly to use a form to send a 'GET' request, so I thought (bing!) why not just construct the URIs as anchor tag href attributes. So instead of using a form, I did:
#foreach( $library_options as $id => $name )
<a class="btn btn-primary" href="{{ URL::to('opening-hours/library/' . $id) }}">Edit {{ $name }}</a>
#endforeach
That solved the issue of dodgy URIs and also the id was directly available from the RESTful controller method like so:
public function show($id)
{
return "This is a library with id: " . $id . "!";
}