Laravel 4: route in group throwing notfoundhttpexception - php

Question

I've noticed a bit of a peculiarity in Laravel 4 when using Routes. I have a Route group that looks like this:
// Employers routes
Route::group(array('prefix' => 'employers'), function(
Route::get('/', array('as' => 'employers.index', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#index'));
Route::get('create', array('as' => 'employers.create', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#create'));
Route::post('/', array('as' => 'employers.store', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#store', 'before' => 'csrf'));
Route::get('search', array('as' => 'employers.search', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#search'));
Route::get('{id}', array('as' => 'employers.show', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#show'));
Route::get('{id}/edit', array('as' => 'employers.edit', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#edit'));
Route::patch('{id}/update', array('as' => 'employers.update', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#update', 'before' => 'csrf'));
Route::delete('{id}/destroy', array('as' => 'employers.destroy', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#destroy', 'before' => 'csrf'));
));
I've noticed, however, that when I try and add in a new route I have to add it before the first route to use the {id} wildcard as the first parameter in it's url, otherwise I get a notfoundhttpexception. Is this normal? So for example, this works (adding in the employers.search route:
// Employers routes
Route::group(array('prefix' => 'employers'), function(
Route::get('/', array('as' => 'employers.index', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#index'));
Route::get('create', array('as' => 'employers.create', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#create'));
Route::post('/', array('as' => 'employers.store', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#store', 'before' => 'csrf'));
Route::get('{id}', array('as' => 'employers.show', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#show'));
Route::get('search', array('as' => 'employers.search', 'uses' => 'EmployersController#search'));
}
Results in the route employers.search not being found?

Answer 1

This is expected behavior. Routes are evaluated in a top-down fashion.
{id} is a "catch all" route.
So the route system sees /search - and thinks search is an {id} - so it loads that route. But then it cannot find an id of search - and so it fails.
So keep your "catch all" route at the bottom of the list - and it will work correctly.