Using named routes

There may be times when we need to change our route's name. On a large site, this could cause a lot of problems if we have multiple links to an incorrect route. Laravel provides an easy-to-use way of assigning names to our routes, so we never have to worry if they change.

Getting ready

For this recipe, we need a standard Laravel installation.

How to do it...

To complete this recipe, follow these steps:

1. In our routes.php file, create a named route as follows:

   Route::get('main-route', array('as' => 'named', function()
   {
     return 'Welcome to ' . URL::current();
   }));

2. Create a route that performs a simple redirect to the named route:

   Route::get('redirect', function()
   {
     return Redirect::route('named');
   });

3. Create a route that displays a link to the named route:

   Route::get('link', function()
   {
     return '<a href="' . URL::route('named') . '">Link!</a>';
   });

4. In the browser, visit http://your-server/redirect and http://your-server/link (where your-server is the URL for the...