Laravel 12 Routing Features: A Comprehensive Guide with Examples

Looking to enhance your Laravel applications with the powerful routing features in Laravel 12? This guide will walk you through the most important routing capabilities with practical examples that you can implement right away.

 

1. Basic Route Definitions

Laravel’s routing system is simple yet powerful. Here’s how to define basic routes: 

2. API Routes

You may enable API routing using the install:api Artisan command: 

 

The install:api command installs Laravel Sanctum, which provides a robust, yet simple API token authentication guard which can be used to authenticate third-party API consumers, SPAs, or mobile applications. In addition, the install:api command creates the routes/api.php file: 

 

Laravel automatically applies the /api prefix to all routes defined in your routes/api.php file.

To modify this default behavior, edit the bootstrap/app.php file:

 

Key Benefits:

• Maintains consistent API endpoint structure
• Saves development time by eliminating manual prefixing
• Allows easy customization when integrating with legacy systems

3. Route Parameters

Capture segments of the URI with route parameters: 

4. Named Routes

Name your routes for easy reference throughout your application:

 

5. Route Groups

Group routes with common attributes like middleware or prefixes: 

With middleware: 

 

With Prefix: 

 

6. Controller Routes

Route to controller actions: 

 

7. Resource Routes

Quickly generate all routes for a resource controller:

 

8. Route Model Binding

Laravel can automatically inject model instances: 

 

9. Rate Limiting

Protect your routes from excessive requests: 

 

10. Fallback Routes

Define a route that will be executed when no other route matches: 

 

11. Route Caching (For Performance)

 Remember to run this after making route changes.

12. Signed URLs

Create temporary, secure URLs for routes: 

 

13. Subdomain Routing

Handle subdomains in your routes: 

 

14. Visualizing Routes

To see all your routes: 

 

Bonus

Real-World Example: Subdomain Routing 

Scenario:

Imagine you’re building a SaaS platform called “AcmeApp” where each customer gets their own personalized subdomain (e.g., client1.acmeapp.com, client2.acmeapp.com). This is common in applications like: 

• Multi-tenant systems
• White-label platforms
• Company-specific portals

Implementation Code

 

How This Works in Production

User Access Flow 

• User visits client1.acmeapp.com
• Laravel captures client1 as the $tenant parameter
• System loads the specific client’s data 

Database Structure

Your accounts table would include:  

Middleware Protection

Add security with middleware:

 

Where verify.tenant checks if the subdomain exists/is active.

 

If you found this helpful, feel free to share or drop a comment. Happy coding with Laravel! 🧱✨

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