Laravel Route Best Practices

Laravel's routing system provides an elegant and expressive way to define application routes. Following consistent naming conventions and best practices ensures your application remains maintainable as it grows.

Overview

Routes define the entry points to your application, connecting URLs to controller actions. Implementing a consistent routing strategy improves code organization, readability, and makes your application easier to maintain over time.

Route Naming Conventions

Consistency in naming routes and URLs helps maintain a clean codebase and improves developer experience. Follow these conventions for best results:

RESTful Resource Routes

Laravel provides a convenient way to define RESTful routes that map to standard CRUD operations. Always follow these seven standard REST actions for consistency:

Explicit Route Definition

You can define resource routes explicitly:

Route::get('/user', 'UserController@index')->name('user.index');
Route::get('/user/create', 'UserController@create')->name('user.create');
Route::post('/user', 'UserController@store')->name('user.store');
Route::get('/user/{user}', 'UserController@show')->name('user.show');
Route::get('/user/{user}/edit', 'UserController@edit')->name('user.edit');
Route::put('/user/{user}', 'UserController@update')->name('user.update');
Route::delete('/user/{user}', 'UserController@destroy')->name('user.destroy');

Implicit Resource Routes

Laravel provides a shorthand for defining all seven RESTful routes in a single line:

Route::resource('user', 'UserController');

Advanced Routing Strategies

When your application requires additional actions beyond the standard RESTful routes, consider these approaches:

Feature-Based Controllers

For actions that don't fit into the seven standard RESTful methods, create dedicated controllers that focus on a specific feature while still adhering to RESTful conventions.

Example: Managing User Passwords

❌ Avoid creating non-standard action names:

// Bad: "editPassword" and "updatePassword" are not standard REST actions
Route::get('/user/{user}/password', 'UserController@editPassword');
Route::put('/user/{user}/password', 'UserController@updatePassword');

✅ Create feature-specific controllers:

// Good: Using dedicated controller with standard REST verbs
Route::get('/user/{user}/password', 'UserPasswordController@edit');
Route::put('/user/{user}/password', 'UserPasswordController@update');

✅ Or use nested controllers:

// Also good: Using nested namespace approach
Route::get('/user/{user}/password', 'User\\PasswordController@edit');
Route::put('/user/{user}/password', 'User\\PasswordController@update');

Example: Displaying User Followers

❌ Avoid non-standard controller methods:

// Bad: "follower" is not a standard REST action
Route::get('/user/{user}/follower', 'UserController@follower');

✅ Use resource-specific controllers:

// Good: Using composite controller name with standard REST verb
Route::get('/user/{user}/follower', 'UserFollowerController@index');

✅ Or use nested controllers:

// Also good: Using nested namespace approach
Route::get('/user/{user}/follower', 'User\\FollowerController@index');

Single Action Controllers

Single Action Controllers are ideal for standalone operations that:

1. Don't fit into standard CRUD operations
2. Can be called from multiple places in your application
3. Relate to pivot tables or many-to-many relationships
4. Represent atomic actions with clear, singular purposes

When to Use Single Action Controllers

Consider using Single Action Controllers for these common scenarios:

• File uploads
• Password reset workflows
• Cache management operations
• Post-login landing pages
• Authentication actions (logout)
• Toggleable actions (like/unlike, follow/unfollow)

Implementation Example

namespace App\Http\Controllers;
class DownloadInvoiceController extends Controller
{
    public function __invoke(Invoice $invoice)
    {
        // Authorization logic
        $this->authorize('download', $invoice);
        // Processing logic
        $pdf = $this->generateInvoicePdf($invoice);
        // Return response
        return response()->download($pdf);
    }
}

Route definition:

Route::get('/invoices/{invoice}/download', DownloadInvoiceController::class);

Best Practices

• Be consistent with your route naming throughout your application
• Use route groups to apply middleware, prefixes, or namespaces to related routes
• Leverage route model binding to automatically inject models into your routes
• Name all routes to make them easier to reference in views and controllers
• Avoid hardcoding URLs in your views - use the route() helper instead
• Keep controllers focused on specific resources or features
• Use route caching in production to improve performance

Troubleshooting

Common Routing Issues

Route Caching Issues

If your application behaves differently after running php artisan route:cache:

1. Check for route definitions using closures (they can't be cached)
2. Ensure all controller classes exist and are correctly namespaced
3. Clear the route cache with php artisan route:clear and try again

Related Documentation

• Laravel Routing
• Controller Organization
• Middleware
• Authentication