Routing

The users of your website or web application can visit different URLs like /, /about, or /posts/1. To make these URLs work, you have to define routes.

In AdonisJS, routes are defined inside the start/routes.ts file. A route is a combination of a URI pattern and a handler to handle requests for that specific route. For example:

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/', () => {
  return 'Hello world from the home page.'
})

router.get('/about', () => {
  return 'This is the about page.'
})

router.get('/posts/:id', ({ params }) => {
  return `This is post with id ${params.id}`
})

The last route in the above example uses a dynamic URI pattern. The :id is a way to tell the router to accept any value for the id. We call them route params.

View list of registered routes

You can run the list:routes command to view the list of routes registered by your application.

node ace list:routes

Also, you can see the routes list from the VSCode activity bar, if you are using our official VSCode extension.

Route params

Route params allow you to define URIs that can accept dynamic values. Each param captures the value of a URI segment, and you can access this value within the route handler.

A route param always starts with a colon :, followed by the param's name.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/posts/:id', ({ params }) => {
  return params.id
})

A URI can also accept multiple params. Each param should have a unique name.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/posts/:id/comments/:commentId', ({ params }) => {
  console.log(params.id)
  console.log(params.commentId)
})

Optional params

The route params can also be optional by appending a question mark ? at the end of the param name. The optional params should come after the required params.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/posts/:id?', ({ params }) => {
  if (!params.id) {
    return 'Showing all posts'
  }

  return `Showing post with id ${params.id}`
})

Wildcard params

To capture all the segments of a URI, you can define a wildcard param. The wildcard param is specified using a special * keyword and must be defined at the last position.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/docs/:category/*', ({ params }) => {
  console.log(params.category)
  console.log(params['*'])
})

Params matchers

The router does not know the format of the param data you want to accept. For example, a request with URI /posts/foo-bar and /posts/1 will match the same route. However, you can explicitly validate the params values using param matchers.

A matcher is registered using the route.where method. The first argument is the param name, and the second argument is the matcher object.

In the following example, we define a regex to validate the id to be a valid number. The route will be skipped in case the validation fails.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router
  .get('/posts/:id', ({ params }) => {})
  .where('id', {
    match: /^[0-9]+$/,
  })

Alongside the match regex, you can also define a cast function to convert the param value to its correct data type. In this example, we can convert the id to a number.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router
  .get('/posts/:id', ({ params }) => {
    console.log(typeof params.id)
  })
  .where('id', {
    match: /^[0-9]+$/,
    cast: (value) => Number(value),
  })

Inbuilt matchers

The router ships with the following helper methods for commonly used data types.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

// Validate id to be numeric + cast to number data type
router.where('id', router.matchers.number())

// Validate id to be a valid UUID
router.where('id', router.matchers.uuid())

// Validate slug to match a given slug regex: regexr.com/64su0
router.where('slug', router.matchers.slug())

Global matchers

The route matchers can be defined globally on the router instance. Unless explicitly overridden at the route level, a global matcher is applied on all the routes.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

// Global matcher
router.where('id', router.matchers.uuid())

router
  .get('/posts/:id', () => {})
  // Overridden at route level
  .where('id', router.matchers.number())

HTTP methods

The router.get method creates a route that responds to GET HTTP method. Similarly, you can use the following methods to register routes for different HTTP methods.

// GET method
router.get('users', () => {})

// POST method
router.post('users', () => {})

// PUT method
router.put('users/:id', () => {})

// PATCH method
router.patch('users/:id', () => {})

// DELETE method
router.delete('users/:id', () => {})

You can use the route.any method to create a route that responds to all standard HTTP methods.

router.any('reports', () => {})

Finally, you can create a route for custom HTTP methods using the route.route method.

router.route('/', ['TRACE'], () => {})

Router handler

The route handler handles the request by returning a response or raising an exception to abort the request.

A handler can be an inline callback (as seen in this guide) or a reference to a controller method.

router.post('users', async () => {
})

In the following example, we import the UsersController class and bind it to the route. During an HTTP request, AdonisJS will create an instance of the controller class using the IoC container and execute the store method.

See also: Dedicated guide on controllers.

import UsersController from '#controllers/users_controller'

router.post('users', [UsersController, 'store'])

Route middleware

You can define a middleware on a route by calling the route.use method. The method accepts an inline callback or a reference to a named middleware.

Following is a minimal example of defining a route middleware. We recommend reading the dedicated guide on middleware to explore all the available options and the execution flow of middleware.

router
  .get('posts', () => {
    console.log('Inside route handler')

    return 'Viewing all posts'
  })
  .use((_, next) => {
    console.log('Inside middleware')
    return next()
  })

Route identifier

Every route has a unique identifier you can use to reference the route elsewhere in your application. For example, you can generate a URL to a route using the URL builder or redirect to a route using the response.redirect method.

By default, the route pattern is the route identifier. However, you can assign a unique, memorable name to the route using the route.as method.

router.get('users', () => {}).as('users.index')

router.post('users', () => {}).as('users.store')

router.delete('users/:id', () => {}).as('users.delete')

You can now construct URLs using the route name within your templates or using the URL builder.

const url = router.builder().make('users.delete', [user.id])

<form
  method='POST'
  action="{{
    route('users.delete', [user.id], { formAction: 'delete' })
  }}"
></form>

Grouping routes

Route groups offer a convenience layer to bulk configure nested inside a group. You may create a group of routes using the router.group method.

router.group(() => {
  /**
   * All routes registered inside the callback
   * are part of the surrounding group
   */
  router.get('users', () => {})
  router.post('users', () => {})
})

Route groups can be nested inside each other, and AdonisJS will merge or override properties based on the behavior of the applied setting.

router.group(() => {
  router.get('posts', () => {})

  router.group(() => {
    router.get('users', () => {})
  })
})

Prefixing routes inside a group

The URI pattern of routes inside a group can be prefixed using the group.prefix method. The following example will create routes for the /api/users and /api/payments URI patterns.

router
  .group(() => {
    router.get('users', () => {})
    router.get('payments', () => {})
  })
  .prefix('/api')

In the case of nested groups, the prefix will be applied from the outer to the inner group. The following example will create routes for /api/v1/users and /api/v1/payments URI patterns.

router
  .group(() => {
    router
      .group(() => {
        router.get('users', () => {})
        router.get('payments', () => {})
      })
      .prefix('v1')
  })
  .prefix('api')

Naming routes inside a group

Similar to prefixing the route pattern, you can also prefix the route names inside a group using the group.as method.

router
  .group(() => {
    route
      .get('users', () => {})
      .as('users.index') // final name - api.users.index
  })
  .prefix('api')
  .as('api')

In the case of nested groups, the names will be prefixed from the outer to the inner group.

router
  .group(() => {
    route
      .get('users', () => {})
      .as('users.index') // api.users.index

    router
      .group(() => {
        route
          .get('payments', () => {})
          .as('payments.index') // api.commerce.payments.index
      })
      .as('commerce')
  })
  .prefix('api')
  .as('api')

Applying middleware to routes inside a group

You can assign middleware to routes inside a group using the group.use method. The group middleware are executed before the middleware applied on individual routes within the group.

In the case of nested groups, the middleware from the outermost group will run first. In other words, a group prepends middleware to the route middleware stack.

See also: Middleware guide

router
  .group(() => {
    router
      .get('posts', () => {})
      .use((_, next) => {
        console.log('logging from route middleware')
        return next()
      })
  })
  .use((_, next) => {
    console.log('logging from group middleware')
    return next()
  })

Registering routes for a specific domain

AdonisJS allows you to register routes under a specific domain name. This is helpful when you have an application mapped to multiple domains and want different routes for each domain.

In the following example, we define two sets of routes.

• Routes that are resolved for any domain/hostname.
• Routes that are matched when the domain/hostname matches the pre-defined domain name value.

router.group(() => {
  router.get('/users', () => {})
  router.get('/payments', () => {})
})

router.group(() => {
  router.get('/articles', () => {})
  router.get('/articles/:id', () => {})
}).domain('blog.adonisjs.com')

Once you deploy your application, the routes under the group with an explicit domain will only be matched if the request's hostname is blog.adonisjs.com.

Dynamic subdomains

You can specify dynamic subdomains using the group.domain method. Similar to the route params, the dynamic segment of a domain starts with a colon :.

In the following example, the tenant segment accepts any subdomain, and you can access its value using the HttpContext.subdomains object.

router
 .group(() => {
   router.get('users', ({ subdomains }) => {
     return `Listing users for ${subdomains.tenant}`
   })
 })
 .domain(':tenant.adonisjs.com')

Render view from a route

You may use the router.on.render method if you have a route handler that only renders a view. It is a convenient shortcut to render a view without defining an explicit handler.

The render method accepts the name of the edge template to render. Optionally, you can pass the template data as the second argument.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.on('/').render('home')
router.on('about').render('about', { title: 'About us' })
router.on('contact').render('contact', { title: 'Contact us' })

Redirect from a route

If you are defining a route handler to redirect the request to another path or route, you may use the router.on.redirect or router.on.redirectToPath methods.

The redirect method accepts the route identifier. Whereas the redirectToPath method accepts a static path/URL.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

// Redirect to a route
router.on('/posts').redirect('/articles')

// Redirect to a URL
router.on('/posts').redirectToPath('https://medium.com/my-blog')

Forwarding params

In the following example, the value of id from the original request will be used to construct the /articles/:id route. So, if a request comes for /posts/20, it will be redirected to /articles/20.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.on('/posts/:id').redirect('/articles/:id')

Explicitly specifying params

You can also specify the route params explicitly as the second argument. In this case, the params from the current request will be ignored.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

// Always redirect to /articles/1
router.on('/posts/:id').redirect('/articles/:id', {
  id: 1
})

With query string

The query string for the redirect URL can be defined within the options object.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.on('/posts').redirect('/articles', {
  qs: {
    limit: 20,
    page: 1,
  }  
})

Current request route

The route of the current request can be accessed using the HttpContext.route property. It includes the route pattern, name, reference to its middleware store, and reference to the route handler.

router.get('payments', ({ route }) => {
  console.log(route)
})

You can also check if the current request is for a specific route or not using the request.matchesRoute method. The method accepts either the route URI pattern or the route name.

router.get('/posts/:id', ({ request }) => {
  if (request.matchesRoute('/posts/:id')) {
  }
})

router
  .get('/posts/:id', ({ request }) => {
    if (request.matchesRoute('posts.show')) {
    }
  })
  .as('posts.show')

You can also match against multiple routes. The method will return true as soon as it finds the first match.

if (request.matchesRoute(['/posts/:id', '/posts/:id/comments'])) {
  // do something
}

How AdonisJS matches routes

The routes are matched in the same order as they are registered inside the routes file. We begin the match from the topmost route and stop at the first matching route.

If you have two similar routes, you must first register the most specific route.

In the following example, the request for the URL /posts/archived will be handled by the first route (i.e., /posts/:id ) because the dynamic param id will capture the archived value.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('posts/:id', () => {})
router.get('posts/archived', () => {})

This behavior can be fixed by re-ordering the routes by placing the most specific route before the route with a dynamic param.

router.get('posts/archived', () => {})
router.get('posts/:id', () => {})

Handling 404 requests

AdonisJS raises a 404 exception when no matching route is found for the current request's URL.

To display a 404 page to the user, you can catch the E_ROUTE_NOT_FOUND exception inside the global exception handler and render a template.

import { errors } from '@adonisjs/core'
import { HttpContext, ExceptionHandler } from '@adonisjs/core/http'

export default class HttpExceptionHandler extends ExceptionHandler {
  async handle(error: unknown, ctx: HttpContext) {
    if (error instanceof errors.E_ROUTE_NOT_FOUND) {
      return ctx.view.render('errors/404')
    }
    
    return super.handle(error, ctx)
  }
}

Extending router

You can add custom properties to different router classes using macros and getters. Make sure to read the extending AdonisJS guide first if you are new to the concept of macros.

Following is the list of classes you can extend.

Router

The Router class contains the top-level methods for creating a route, a route group, or a route resource. An instance of this class is made available via the router service.

import { Router } from '@adonisjs/core/http'

Router.macro('property', function (this: Router) {
  return value
})
Router.getter('propertyName', function (this: Router) {
  return value
})

declare module '@adonisjs/core/http' {
  export interface Router {
    property: valueType
  }
}

Route

The Route class represents a single route. An instance of the Route class is created once you call the router.get, router.post, and other similar methods.

import { Route } from '@adonisjs/core/http'

Route.macro('property', function (this: Route) {
  return value
})
Router.getter('property', function (this: Route) {
  return value
})

declare module '@adonisjs/core/http' {
  export interface Route {
    property: valueType
  }
}

RouteGroup

The RouteGroup class represents a group of routes. An instance of RouteGroup class is created once you call the router.group method.

You can access the group's routes using the this.routes property inside your macro or getter implementation.

import { RouteGroup } from '@adonisjs/core/http'

RouteGroup.macro('property', function (this: RouteGroup) {
  return value
})
RouteGroup.getter('property', function (this: RouteGroup) {
  return value
})

declare module '@adonisjs/core/http' {
  export interface RouteGroup {
    property: valueType
  }
}

RouteResource

The RouteResource class represents a group of routes for a resource. An instance of RouteResource class is created once you call the router.resource method.

You can access the routes of the resource using the this.routes property inside your macro or getter implementation.

import { RouteResource } from '@adonisjs/core/http'

RouteResource.macro('property', function (this: RouteResource) {
  return value
})
RouteResource.getter('property', function (this: RouteResource) {
  return value
})

declare module '@adonisjs/core/http' {
  export interface RouteResource {
    property: valueType
  }
}

BriskRoute

The BriskRoute class represents a route without an explicit handler. An instance of BriskRoute class is created once you call the router.on method.

You can call the this.setHandler method inside your macro or getter to assign a route handler.

import { BriskRoute } from '@adonisjs/core/http'

BriskRoute.macro('property', function (this: BriskRoute) {
  return value
})
BriskRouter.getter('property', function (this: BriskRoute) {
  return value
})

declare module '@adonisjs/core/http' {
  export interface BriskRoute {
    property: valueType
  }
}