Laravel Routing & Controllers (Beginner Friendly)

📌 What Are Routes in Laravel?

Routes are the entry points for your web application.
Every HTTP request is mapped to a route, which tells Laravel which code to execute.

Types of Routes:

• Web routes → for browser requests
  File: routes/web.php

• API routes → for APIs
  File: routes/api.php

🔀 Basic Route Example

Open routes/web.php and add:

Route::get('/', function () {
    return "Welcome to Laravel Routing!";
});

• get → HTTP GET request

• / → URL path

• function() → callback executed when route is visited

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ → you’ll see the message 🎉

🚪 Route Parameters

Dynamic routes can accept parameters:

Route::get('/user/{id}', function ($id) {
    return "User ID: ".$id;
});

• {id} → route parameter

• $id → received in the closure

Example URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000/user/5 → Output: User ID: 5

🏷 Named Routes

Named routes help you generate URLs dynamically:

Route::get('/profile', function () {
    return "This is your profile";
})->name('profile');

Generate URL in Blade:

<a href="{{ route('profile') }}">Profile</a>

🔧 Route Groups & Middleware

Group routes for better organization:

Route::middleware(['auth'])->group(function () {
    Route::get('/dashboard', function () {
        return "Dashboard Page";
    });

    Route::get('/settings', function () {
        return "Settings Page";
    });
});

• Only authenticated users can access these routes

• middleware → provided by Laravel