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  4. How to Include External Routing Resources

Warning: You are browsing the documentation for Symfony 4.1, which is no longer maintained.

Read the updated version of this page for Symfony 5.3 (the current stable version).

How to Include External Routing Resources

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How to Include External Routing Resources

Simple applications can define all their routes in a single configuration file - usually config/routes.yaml (see Creating Routes). However, in most applications it’s common to import routes definitions from different resources: PHP annotations in controller files, YAML or XML files stored in some directory, etc.

This can be done by importing routing resources from the main routing file:

  • YAML
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    # config/routes.yaml
app_file:
    # loads routes from the given routing file stored in some bundle
    resource: '@AcmeOtherBundle/Resources/config/routing.yml'

app_annotations:
    # loads routes from the PHP annotations of the controllers found in that directory
    resource: '../src/Controller/'
    type:     annotation

app_directory:
    # loads routes from the YAML or XML files found in that directory
    resource: '../legacy/routing/'
    type:     directory

app_bundle:
    # loads routes from the YAML or XML files found in some bundle directory
    resource: '@AppBundle/Resources/config/routing/public/'
    type:     directory
  • XML
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    <!-- config/routes.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing
        http://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd">

    <!-- loads routes from the given routing file stored in some bundle -->
    <import resource="@AcmeOtherBundle/Resources/config/routing.yml" />

    <!-- loads routes from the PHP annotations of the controllers found in that directory -->
    <import resource="../src/Controller/" type="annotation" />

    <!-- loads routes from the YAML or XML files found in that directory -->
    <import resource="../legacy/routing/" type="directory" />

    <!-- loads routes from the YAML or XML files found in some bundle directory -->
    <import resource="@AppBundle/Resources/config/routing/public/" type="directory" />
</routes>
  • PHP
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    // config/routes.php
use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;

$routes = new RouteCollection();
$routes->addCollection(
    // loads routes from the given routing file stored in some bundle
    $loader->import("@AcmeOtherBundle/Resources/config/routing.yml")

    // loads routes from the PHP annotations of the controllers found in that directory
    $loader->import("../src/Controller/", "annotation")

    // loads routes from the YAML or XML files found in that directory
    $loader->import("../legacy/routing/", "directory")

    // loads routes from the YAML or XML files found in some bundle directory
    $loader->import("@AppBundle/Resources/config/routing/public/", "directory")
);

return $routes;

Note

When importing resources from YAML, the key (e.g. app_file) is meaningless. Just be sure that it’s unique so no other lines override it.

Prefixing the URLs of Imported Routes

You can also choose to provide a “prefix” for the imported routes. For example, suppose you want to prefix all application routes with /site (e.g. /site/blog/{slug} instead of /blog/{slug}):

  • Annotations
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    use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route;

/**
 * @Route("/site")
 */
class DefaultController
{
    // ...
}
  • YAML
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    # config/routes.yaml
controllers:
    resource: '../src/Controller/'
    type:     annotation
    prefix:   /site
  • XML
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    <!-- config/routes.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing
        http://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd">

    <import
        resource="../src/Controller/"
        type="annotation"
        prefix="/site" />
</routes>
  • PHP
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    // config/routes.php
use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;

$app = $loader->import('../src/Controller/', 'annotation');
$app->addPrefix('/site');

$routes = new RouteCollection();
$routes->addCollection($app);

return $routes;

The path of each route being loaded from the new routing resource will now be prefixed with the string /site.

Note

If any of the prefixed routes defines an empty path, Symfony adds a trailing slash to it. In the previous example, an empty path prefixed with /site will result in the /site/ URL. If you want to avoid this behavior, set the trailing_slash_on_root option to false:

  • YAML
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    # config/routes.yaml
controllers:
    resource: '../src/Controller/'
    type:     annotation
    prefix:   /site
    trailing_slash_on_root: false
  • XML
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    <!-- config/routes.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing
        http://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd">

    <import
        resource="../src/Controller/"
        type="annotation"
        prefix="/site"
        trailing-slash-on-root="false" />
</routes>
  • PHP
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    // config/routes.php
use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;

$app = $loader->import('../src/Controller/', 'annotation');
// the second argument is the $trailingSlashOnRoot option
$app->addPrefix('/site', false);
// ...

New in version 4.1: The trailing_slash_on_root option was introduced in Symfony 4.1.

Prefixing the Names of Imported Routes

You also have the possibility to prefix the names of all the routes defined in a controller class or imported from a configuration file:

  • Annotations
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    use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route;

/**
 * @Route(name="blog_")
 */
class BlogController extends AbstractController
{
    /**
     * @Route("/blog", name="index")
     */
    public function index()
    {
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * @Route("/blog/posts/{slug}", name="post")
     */
    public function show(Post $post)
    {
        // ...
    }
}
  • YAML
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    # config/routes.yaml
controllers:
    resource:    '../src/Controller/'
    type:        annotation
    name_prefix: 'blog_'
  • XML
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    <!-- config/routes.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing
        http://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd">

    <import
        resource="../src/Controller/"
        type="annotation"
        name-prefix="blog_" />
</routes>
  • PHP
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    // config/routes.php
use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;

$app = $loader->import('../src/Controller/', 'annotation');
$app->addNamePrefix('blog_');

$collection = new RouteCollection();
$collection->addCollection($app);

return $collection;

In this example, the names of the routes will be blog_index and blog_post.

New in version 4.1: The option to prefix route names in YAML, XML and PHP files was introduced in Symfony 4.1. Previously only the @Route() annotation supported this feature.

Adding a Host Requirement to Imported Routes

You can set the host regex on imported routes. For more information, see Using Host Matching of Imported Routes.

This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.