Correct routing for a Rest API with Zend

I'm trying to implement a REST API to my website.

My problem is that the default Zend routing gets in the way. I've first tried using Zend_Rest_Route but I haven't been able to understand how I was supposed to use it correctly for "deep" routes, aka website/api/resource1/filter/resource2/id.

Using the default Zend routing, I'd need to create a gigantic Resource1Controller to take care of all the possible actions, and I don't think it's the "good" way to do this.

I've tried using Resauce ( http://github.com/mikekelly/Resauce/), creating an api module and adding routes, but I'm not able to get it working correctly :

The patterns I added were :

    $this->addResauceRoutes(array(
        'api/resource' => 'resource',
        'api/resource/:id' => 'custom',
        'api/resource/filter' => 'resource-filter',
        'api/resource/filter/:id' => 'custom',
    ));

Which then leads to this :

public function addResauceRoutes($routes) {
    $router = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->getRouter();
    foreach ($routes as $pattern => $controller) {
        $router->addRoute($controller,
            new Zend_Controller_Router_Route($pattern, array(
                'module' => 'api',
                'controller' => $controller
                )
            )
        );
    }
    Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->setRouter($router);

• website/api/resource gets me the Resource1Controller, ok
• website/api/resource/filter gets me to the resource1filterController, ok
• website/api/resource/filter/:id gets me to a custom controller, ok
• I'd like for website/api/resource/:id to get me to the same custom co开发者_开发知识库ntroller... But it redirects me to the Resource1Controller.

What solution is there for me to correctly create my API ? Is there a good way to do this with Zend_Rest_Route ?

Edit : Mike,

I felt that it was not appropriate for me to use different controllers since I need the pathes "website/api/resource/:id" and "website/api/resource/filter/:id" to give me almost the exact same result (the only difference is that because the filter is there, I may get a message telling "content filtered" here).

I thought it was a waste creating another almost identical controller when I could've used the same controller and just checked if a parameter "filter" was present.

However, I don't want to use the basic Zend routing since for the path "website/api/resource/filter/resource2" I'd like to have a totally different comportment, so I'd like to use another controller, especially since I'm trying to use Zend_Rest_Action and need my controllers to use the basic actions getAction(), putAction(), postAction() and deleteAction().

Please could you explain why it is you need two URI patterns pointing to the same controller. A better solution might be to use a separate controller for each of the two patterns and move any shared logic into your model.

Forcing a unique controller for each routing pattern was an intentional design decision, so I'd be interested to hear more detail about your use case where you feel this isn't appropriate.

I thought it was a waste creating another almost identical controller when I could've used the same controller and just checked if a parameter "filter" was present.

Personally, I think it is cleaner to move the shared logic into the model and to keep your controllers skinny. To me it's not wasteful, it's just more organised - it will make your code easier to manage over time.

If you really need to use the same controller you could always use a query parameter instead, that would work fine:

api/resource/foo?filter=true

That URI would be taken care of by the first route ('api/resource/:id' => 'custom') for free.

But please consider using two controllers, I think that is a better approach.

Okay, the reason I didn't get the good controllers was because Resauce uses the controller name as the name of the route, which has to be unique - so second url pointing to "custom" controller couldn't work. Now I'm able to get the files I want :)

So instead of what was previously noted, I use directly the $router->addRoute(); and define new names each times, even if pointing to the same controller.

Example :

$router->addRoute('resource', new Zend_Controller_Router_Route('/api/resources/:id', array('module' => 'api', 'controller' => 'resource')));
$router->addRoute('resourceFiltered', new Zend_Controller_Router_Route('/api/resources/filter1/:id', array('module' => 'api', 'controller' => 'resource', 'filter' => 'filter1'));