Custom lithium routing scenario - php

Question

I've been tasked with rewriting an existing website with large pre-existing link catalog. For argument's sake, let's assume we can't do anything that would change the link catalog. Here's a few examples of the link structure we're working with:
An item page would be:
www.domain.com/widgets/some-totally-awesome-large-purple-widget
A category sub page page would be:
www.domain.com/widgets/purple-widgets
A category parent page page would be:
www.domain.com/widgets/
A custom page may be:
www.domain.com/some-random-page
The various page types are too numerous to write individual Routers for.
Using Router::connect I can easily account for the first and second scenarios using something like:
Router::connect('/{:pageroot}/{:pagekey}', 'Pages::index');
In turn, the Pages::index method looks for entries in our database with the "key" of '/widgets/purple-widgets'.
However, the framework defaults to the '/{:controller}/{:action}/{:args}' route for pages like the third and fourth. I know that this is the correct behavior for the framework. Also, best practice would state that I should write the site to match this behavior. But, that isn't an option here.
What I need is a Router that would allow the third and fourth examples to function the same as the first. All examples should be sent to the Pages::index controller, which in turn queries a database using the URL path as a key.

Answer 1

If you don't have any convention in the URL for what is what, between page, item and category. I'd go with a very generic router.
Router::connect('/{:category}/{:page}/{:item}', 'Pages::any');
Router::connect('/{:category}/{:page}', array('Pages::any', 'item' => null));
Router::connect('/{:category}', array('Pages::any', 'page' => null, 'item' => null));
And in Pages::any() to search for the correct stuff. Is that category a page after all (example 4)? Is that page an item (example 1)?
or
You store the URL somewhere (e.g. a mapping table in the database) and use the pattern version of a lithium Route.
Router::connect(new Route(array(
'pattern' => '#^/(?<path>.+)$#',
'params' => array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'any'),
'keys' => array('path' => 'path'),
// extra stuff, if the path is `tata`, it skips this route and uses
// any of the following ones that matches.
'handler' => function($request) {
if ($request->params['path'] == 'tata') {
return false;
} else {
return $request;
}
}
)));
From that point, you'll get the full URL.

Answer 2

You probably should write a smart Router Helper which is maybe able to process your request based on your db defined routes.
Take a look into: net/http/Router.php
especially connect(), parse() and match()
I would start to write some kind of anonymous function and progress it to a testable Class which is located in /extension.. ?