Routing

Modular, under the hood, uses the Laravel's Routing System, but with some conventions applied, that will make it easier to work with, in Modular Applications.

Types of Routes

After the Modular install, the system will handle three different types of routes out of the box:

1 - App Routes

App Routes are the ones that are available only to logged in users. Ideally, all the navigation links inside the application, after the user logs in, should be App Routes.

The App Routes file for your modules must be called app.php and must be placed inside the routes folder of your module. So, for example, if you have a module called Customer, you should have the following file structure:

modules/Customer
└── routes
    └── app.php

These routes will be automatically loaded by the Modular's System with the appropriate middleware to protect the routes, so you don't have to worry about it.

Inside routes/app.php you can define your routes as you would normally do in Laravel, for example:

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use Modules\Customer\Http\Controllers\CustomerController;

Route::get('customer', [
    CustomerController::class, 'index'
])->name('customer.index');

In fact, the Module Generator Command will automatically generate this routes file for you, following the mentioned conventions.

2 - API Routes

Everything is connected, and at some point, it's possible that you will need to create an API for your application. Modular has a built-in way to handle this, and it's very simple, thanks to the Laravel Sanctum package.

If you need to create API routes for your Modules, just create a file called api.php inside the routes folder of your Module, and Modular will automatically load it for you. So for example, if you have a Module called Customer, you should have the following file structure:

modules/Customer
└── routes
    ├── api.php
    └── app.php

The routes defined inside api.php will have the api prefix added to them, and be protected by the auth:sanctum middleware, so you don't have to worry about it. Also, the correct namespace of your Module will be automatically applied to the Controllers, so you don't have to worry about it either.

Inside routes/api.php, you can define your routes as you would normally do in Laravel, for example:

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use Modules\Customer\Http\Controllers\ApiCustomerController;

// This route will be available at /api/v1/customer
Route::get('/v1/customer', [
    ApiCustomerController::class, 'index'
]);

3 - Site Routes

Site Routes are the ones that are publicly available, and can be accessed by anyone, without any type of authentication. These are equivalent to the default Laravel's web.php routes file.

If your Module needs public routes, for a Landing Page for example, that must save Leads, you can create a file called site.php inside the routes folder of your Module, and Modular will automatically load it for you. So for example, if you have a Module called Lead, you should have the following file structure:

modules/Lead
└── routes
    ├── app.php
    └── site.php

These routes will be loaded without any prefix or namespace applied to them, so you have the freedom to define them as you wish. Inside routes/site.php, you can define your routes as you would normally do in Laravel, for example:

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use Modules\Lead\Http\Controllers\SiteLeadController;

Route::get('/lead', [
   SiteLeadController::class, 'index'
]);

When using app routes and site routes in your modules, be careful not to use the same route names and route paths, as they can conflict with each other.