CakePHP - How to do reverse routing with slug? - php

Question

I am using CakePHP 1.3. I have a Product model. on the DB table among others there are id and slug fields.
If I have a product that is id:37 and slug:My-Product-Title I want the URL for the product to be:
products/37/My-Product-Title
Instead of the standard:
products/view/37
I created a route that looks like this:
Router::connect(
'/products/:id/:slug',
array('controller' => 'products', 'action' => 'view'),
array('pass' => array('id'), 'id' => '[0-9]+')
);
Now I can go to http://server/products/37/My-Product-Title and it takes me to the right place.
But How do I get reverse routing to automatically build the correct URL in $HtmlHelper->link?
When I use:
echo $html->link(
'Product 37',
array('controller'=>'products', 'action' => 'view', 37)
);
It still outputs the standard products/view/37 url.

Answer 1

I don't believe that it's possible to be done auto-magically. The helper is just an "helper" who builds the link from the given parameters.
So the easiest method is to add another parameter in your link like so:
echo $html->link(
'Product 37',
array('controller'=>'products', 'action' => 'view', 37, $slug)
);
where the $slug is the data from the slug field.
Probably it could be done your idea, but you need to break the MVC pattern very badly :)
Edit:
Reading your question again I understood it well. See how should be done:
in your router.php add the following rule:
Router::connect(
'/product/*',
array('controller' => 'products', 'action' => 'view')
);
Please note that it's /product/* rather than /products/*
Your link should be done like this:
echo $html->link(
'Product 37',
array('controller'=>'products', 'action' => 'view', 37, 'my-product-title')
);
and the link would look like:
http://yourdomain.com/product/37/my-product-title
For me doing your suggestion is bad practice. Also I don't think it's good from SEO point of view redirecting always the user.

Answer 2

For routing:
Router::connect(
'/products/:id/:slug',
array('controller' => 'products', 'action' => 'view'),
array('pass' => array('id'), 'id' => '[0-9]+')
);
Your links should look like this:
echo $html->link(
'Product 37',
array('controller'=>'products', 'action' => 'view', 'id' => 37, 'slug' => 'my-product-title')
);
You have to add additional (key => value) to your array for each :param in your routing. Then magic will work

Answer 3

You should look at the following post regarding custom route classes.
The slug data doesn't need to be involved with the database at all - the field is a fake field used to simplify logic and lookups. This solution allows you to reverse route slugs, without needing a slug field in the models table.
http://42pixels.com/blog/slugs-ugly-bugs-pretty-urls

Answer 4

I am not sure how bad this is but with the following code in the ProductsController:
function view($id)
{
if( isset($_SERVER) && stristr($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"],'view/') )
{
$this->Product->id = $id;
$slug = $this->Product->field('slug');
$this->redirect($id.'/'.$slug);
}
$data = $this->Product->find('first', array('conditions' => array('Product.id' => $id)));
$this->set("data", $data);
}
If the page is accesses via /view/id it automatically redirects them to the current page using /id/slug
Now I can just use the default link scheme:
echo $html->link(
'Product 37',
array('controller'=>'products', 'action' => 'view', 37)
);
and they will be redirected to the right URL.
Only problem is I am not sure how bad it is to have a redirect happening every time a user visits a product page?