Download the PHP package mycodebox/minirouter without Composer

MiniRouter

A minimalist, flexible PHP router for small and medium-sized projects.
Features: Named routes, middleware, groups, reverse routing, dependency injection, flexible response types, complex placeholders, forwarding, and more.

Table of Contents

1. Overview & Features
2. Installation
3. Quick Start
4. Routing & Placeholders
5. Middleware
   • Global Middleware
   • Route Middleware
   • Group Middleware
   • Middleware as a Class
6. Container
   • Service Variants with MiniContainer
7. Groups & API
8. Request & Response
9. Reverse Routing
10. Error Handling
11. Complete Demo
12. API Overview
13. License & Author

Overview & Features

• Routing for all HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS, HEAD)
• Placeholders & complex patterns (/user/{id:\d+})
• Named routes & reverse routing (urlFor)
• Middleware (global, per route, per group, as class)
• Route groups with prefix and shared middleware
• Dependency injection via MiniContainer
• Automatic body parsing (JSON, form data)
• Flexible response types (text, JSON, HTML, download)
• Server-side forwarding
• Error handling & debug mode

Installation

1. Copy the files from src/ into your project.
2. Install Composer dependencies (if needed).
3. Create an entry point, e.g., index.php, or use the example example/demo.php.

Quick Start

Tip:
MiniRouter supports middleware and dependency injection via container.
See examples in the next section.

Option 1: With Composer (recommended)

1. Install dependencies (only needed once):

2. Example code:

Middleware

MiniRouter supports different types of middleware:

Global Middleware

Route Middleware

Group Middleware

Middleware as a Class

Container

Use the built-in container for dependency injection:

Service Variants with MiniContainer

You can register and use services in the container in various ways:

Variant 1: Anonymous Function (Closure)

Variant 2: Without Container Parameter

Variant 3: Using a Class

Variant 4: Using an Array as a Service

Variant 5: Explicit Service Factory

Routing & Placeholders

• Simple route:
  $router->get('/hello/{name}', $handler);

• Complex pattern:
  $router->get('/user/{id:\d+}', $handler); // Numbers only

• Named route:
  $router->get('/foo', $handler)->setName('foo_route');

• Reverse routing:
  $url = $router->urlFor('foo_route');

• ANY route (multi-method route):

How do placeholders and complex patterns work?

• Simple placeholders:
  Everything in {} is recognized as a variable and passed as a value in $args to the handler.
  Example: /hello/{name} matches /hello/World → $args['name'] === 'World'

• Complex patterns with regex:
  After the name, a colon and a regular expression can follow, e.g., {id:\d+} for numbers only.
  Example: /user/{id:\d+} matches /user/42, but not /user/abc.

• Multiple placeholders:
  You can use as many placeholders as you like, e.g., /blog/{year:\d{4}}/{slug}.

• Default behavior:
  Without regex, a placeholder accepts everything except / ([^/]+).

• Internal:
  The router automatically converts the pattern into a regular expression and extracts the values as $args.

Examples:

Notes

• Case-insensitivity:
  When registering HTTP methods (e.g., with any), case does not matter. You can mix 'get', 'GET', 'Post', etc.
• Quality:
  The project is checked with PHPUnit tests and PHPStan.

Groups & API

Request & Response

• Request:
  • $req->method, $req->uri, $req->query, $req->body, $req->headers
  • $req->getHeader('X-API-Key')
  • $req->withAttribute('key', $value), $req->getAttribute('key')
• Response:
  • $res->withStatus(201)
  • $res->withHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json')
  • $res->withBody(['foo' => 'bar'])
  • $res->send()

Reverse Routing

Error Handling

Complete Demo

A complete, practical example can be found in example/demo.php. You can try the demo directly like this:

Then open in your browser, e.g., http://localhost:8080

The demo shows:

• Container setup
• Middleware (global, route, group, class)
• Named routes & reverse routing
• API group with auth middleware
• Various response types (text, JSON, HTML)
• Forwarding & error handling

API Overview

MiniRouter

• addRoute($method, $pattern, $handler): MiniRoute
• get($pattern, $handler): MiniRoute
• post($pattern, $handler): MiniRoute
• put($pattern, $handler): MiniRoute
• patch($pattern, $handler): MiniRoute
• delete($pattern, $handler): MiniRoute
• options($pattern, $handler): MiniRoute
• any(array $methods, string $pattern, $handler): array
• group($prefix, $callback): MiniRouteGroup
• addMiddleware($middleware): self
• urlFor($name, $params = []): ?string
• dispatch(): void
• forward($path, $method = 'GET', $req = null, $res = null)
• getCurrentRoute(): ?MiniRoute
• public array $routes

MiniRoute

• setName($name): self
• getName(): ?string
• addMiddleware($middleware): self
• public string $pattern
• public string $method
• public array $middleware
• public ?MiniRouteGroup $group
• public $handler
• public ?string $name

MiniRouteGroup

• addMiddleware($middleware): self
• addRoute(MiniRoute $route): self
• getRoutes(): array
• getMiddleware(): array
• public string $prefix
• public array $middleware
• public array $routes

MiniRequest

• public string $method
• public string $uri
• public array $query
• public mixed $body
• public array $headers
• public array $attributes
• getHeader($name): mixed
• withAttribute($key, $value): self
• getAttribute($key): mixed

MiniResponse

• withStatus($status): self
• withHeader($name, $value): self
• withBody($body): self
• send(): void

MiniContainer

• set($name, $factory): void
• get($name): mixed
• has($name): bool

License & Author

License: MIT
Author: myCodebox