Group routes with common path prefix

[slashmo]

Similar to how routes may be grouped using app.group(middleware: Middleware, configure: (Application) -> Void), it would be great to be able to group routes based on a common root path.

For example, a TodosController could be simplified through something like this:

// before
app
    .post("/todos", handler: self.create)
    .get("/todos", handler: self.getAll)
    .get("/todos/:todoID", handler: self.getByID)
    .delete("/todos/:todoID", handler: self.delete)

// after
app
    .grouped("/todos")
    .post(handler: self.create)
    .get(handler: self.getAll)
    .get(":todoID", handler: self.getByID)
    .delete(":todoID", handler: self.delete)

Of course, this would be only one possible API for introducing this feature. Nesting routes might also make sense to better visualize the grouping:

app.grouped("/todos") { todos in
    todos
        .post(handler: self.create)
        .get(handler: self.getAll)
        .get(":todoID", handler: self.getByID)
        .delete(":todoID", handler: self.delete)
}

🔗 Prior Art: Vapor

[joshuawright11]

So I actually removed that a couple weeks back after overhauling the router; at the time was gonna require a bit of refactoring and I was wondering if it would cause more confusion that just forcing people to type out the strings for endpoints.

That being said, thinking about it more it seems like it would be some great sugar for defining similar routes.

Big fan of the grouped() variation, adding an optional pathPrefix for the app.controller function could also be useful.

app
    .grouped("/todo") { app in
        ...
    }
    .controller("/todo", TodoController())

Would love to encourage more contributions so if you're keen to contribute it might be a good way to get your feet wet in the code! It would be a pretty simple PR.

Implementation would be nearly identical to how group(middleware: Middleware) is handled.

1. Add a var pathPrefixes: [String] to the Router
2. Add grouped function to Application that appends a prefix, configure(self), then pops the prefix back off.
3. For the controller, just add an optional _ pathPrefix: String argument and append, controller.routes(self), pop.

If not, we'll add it to the roadmap. Thanks for the suggestion!

[slashmo]

adding an optional pathPrefix for the app.controller function could also be useful.
@joshuawright11

I agree that this could be useful. However, I have a small concern that this might require "jumping around" (between the controller and app) to understand how a path is assembled. Having only .grouped available would require the entire path to be assembled inside the controller, making it easier to reason about. What do you think?

[joshuawright11]

Yep, that makes sense. Would be confusing to have to piece together the path across files.

[joshuawright11]

Released in v0.1.4