Organizing Controllers
======================
When your application starts to define too many controllers, you might want to
group them logically::
// define controllers for a blog
$blog = $app['controllers_factory'];
$blog->get('/', function () {
return 'Blog home page';
});
// ...
// define controllers for a forum
$forum = $app['controllers_factory'];
$forum->get('/', function () {
return 'Forum home page';
});
// define "global" controllers
$app->get('/', function () {
return 'Main home page';
});
$app->mount('/blog', $blog);
$app->mount('/forum', $forum);
// define controllers for an admin
$app->mount('/admin', function ($admin) {
// recursively mount
$admin->mount('/blog', function ($user) {
$user->get('/', function () {
return 'Admin Blog home page';
});
});
});
.. note::
``$app['controllers_factory']`` is a factory that returns a new instance
of ``ControllerCollection`` when used.
``mount()`` prefixes all routes with the given prefix and merges them into the
main Application. So, ``/`` will map to the main home page, ``/blog/`` to the
blog home page, ``/forum/`` to the forum home page, and ``/admin/blog/`` to the
admin blog home page.
.. caution::
When mounting a route collection under ``/blog``, it is not possible to
define a route for the ``/blog`` URL. The shortest possible URL is
``/blog/``.
.. note::
When calling ``get()``, ``match()``, or any other HTTP methods on the
Application, you are in fact calling them on a default instance of
``ControllerCollection`` (stored in ``$app['controllers']``).
Another benefit is the ability to apply settings on a set of controllers very
easily. Building on the example from the middleware section, here is how you
would secure all controllers for the backend collection::
$backend = $app['controllers_factory'];
// ensure that all controllers require logged-in users
$backend->before($mustBeLogged);
.. tip::
For a better readability, you can split each controller collection into a
separate file::
// blog.php
$blog = $app['controllers_factory'];
$blog->get('/', function () { return 'Blog home page'; });
return $blog;
// app.php
$app->mount('/blog', include 'blog.php');
Instead of requiring a file, you can also create a :ref:`Controller
provider <controller-providers>`.