How to define routes with multiple parameters without pretty urls in Laravel - php

Question

I am using Laravel. I would like users to be able to perform a search on my website using up to 3 criteria. These criteria are: Class, Brand and Model.
They should be free to use any or all of them when searching. As the relationship between these isn't as simple as Many->1, Many->1, Many->1, and also given the criteria will be numbered if blank, I dont want to use pretty urls to post the search criteria as they would look like this:
/SearchResults/0/BMW/0
which is meaningless to users and search engines. I therefore want to use normal dynamic addresses for this route as follows:
/SearchResults/?Class=0&Brand="BMW"&Model=0
How do I define a route that allows me to extract these three criteria and pass it to a custom method in my resource controller?
I have tried this but it isnt working:
Route::get('/SearchResults/?Class={$class}&Brand={$brand}&Model={$type}', 'AdvertController#searchResults');
Many thanks

Answer 1

The Symfony Routing components fetch the REQUEST_URI server variable for matching routes, and thus Laravel's Route Facade would not pick up URL parameters.
Instead, make use of Input::get() to fetch them.
For example, you would start by checking if the class param exists by using Input::has('class'), and then fetching it with Input::get('class'). Once you have all three, or just some of them, you'd start your model/SQL query so that you may return your results to the user.

Answer 2

You will need to route all to the same method and then, within the controller, reroute that given action to the correct method within the controller.
For that, I recommend using the strategy pattern (read more here).
I would do something like this:
route.php
Route::get('/SearchResults', 'AdvertController#searchResults');
AdvertController.php
use Input;
...
private $strategy = [];
public function __construct(){
$strategy = [
/*class => handler*/
'0'=> $this->class0Handler,
'1'=>$this->class1Handler,
...];
}
private function class0Handler(){
//your handler method
}
public function searchResults(){
if( !array_key_exists(Input::get('class'),$this->strategy))
abort(404);
return $this->strategy[Input::get('class')]();
}
In case you are breaking down search by other types, you define the handler in the $strategy variable.
Strategy pattern has a lot of benefits. I would strongly recommend it.