Using route groups

When creating a web app, we may find a few routes that need the same URL prefix or filter. Using Laravel's route groups, we can easily apply these to multiple routes.

Getting ready

For this recipe, we just need a standard installation of Laravel.

How to do it…

To complete this recipe, follow these steps:

1. In our app/filters.php file, create a filter to check for a user:

   Route::filter('checkUser', function()
   {
     if ('user' !== Session::get('profile'))
     {
       return 'You are not Logged In. Go Away!';
     }
   });

2. In the app/routes.php file, create a route that can set our profile session:

   Route::get('set-profile', function()
   {
     Session::set('profile', 'user');
     return Redirect::to('profile/user');
   });

3. In routes.php, create our route group:

   Route::group(array('before' => 'checkUser', 'prefix' => 'profile'), function()
   {
       Route::get('user', function()
       {
           return 'I am logged in! This is my user profile.';
       });
       Route::get('friends', function()
       {
         return...