Laravel 8 Multiple Routes With The Same Url

Question

Good Day

I'm new to Laravel, and I want to create a website that has multiple users (Student, Supervisor, HOD). I want to know if there is a way to have all the users have the same URLs. Below is the approach I used to try to achieve this:

web.php

// Routes For Students
Route::group(['middleware' => ['auth', 'role:student']], function() {
    Route::get('/home', 'App\Http\Controllers\StudentController@index')->name('student');
    Route::get('/proposal', 'App\Http\Controllers\StudentController@proposal')->name('proposal');
    Route::get('/thesis', 'App\Http\Controllers\StudentController@thesis')->name('thesis');
});

// Routes For Supervisors
Route::group(['middleware' => ['auth', 'role:supervisor']], function() {
    Route::get('/home', 'App\Http\Controllers\supervisorController@index')->name('supervisor');
    Route::get('/proposal', 'App\Http\Controllers\supervisorController@proposal')->name('proposal');
    Route::get('/thesis', 'App\Http\Controllers\supervisorController@thesis')->name('thesis');
});

// Routes For HOD's
Route::group(['middleware' => ['auth', 'role:hod']], function() {
    Route::get('/home', 'App\Http\Controllers\hodController@index')->name('hod');
    Route::get('/proposal', 'App\Http\Controllers\hodController@proposal')->name('proposal');
    Route::get('/thesis', 'App\Http\Controllers\hodController@thesis')->name('thesis');
});

However I noticed that you cannot have routes with the same URL, but I want all types of users to have the same URL for their respective home, proposal & thesis pages. Is this possible?

Please let me know if you require more code or a better explanation.

Answer 1

I'd advise just adding a prefix to all those routes. That way you don't get any duplicate uris.

---

If you really don't want to do that, I've got another possibility, but you won't be able to keep the route names.

Basically, use an invokable controller to reroute to the correct controller/action.

php artisan make:controller -i

Route::group(['middleware' => ['auth']], function () {
    Route::get('/home', 'App\Http\Controllers\MyInvokableController')->name('home');
    Route::get('/proposal', 'App\Http\Controllers\MyInvokableController')->name('proposal');
    Route::get('/thesis', 'App\Http\Controllers\MyInvokableController')->name('thesis');
});

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class MyInvokableController extends Controller
{
    private $lookupArray = [
        'home'     => 'index',
        'proposal' => 'proposal',
        'thesis'   => 'thesis',
    ];

    public function __invoke(Request $request)
    {
        $role = ;// get your user's role
        $urlSegment = $request->segment(count($request->segments()) - 1); // 'home', 'proposal' or 'thesis'

        if ($role === 'student') {
            return app(StudentController::class)->{$this->lookupArray[$urlSegment]}($request);
        } elseif ($role === 'supervisor') {
            return app(supervisorController::class)->{$this->lookupArray[$urlSegment]}($request);
        } elseif ($role === 'hod') {
            return app(hodController::class)->{$this->lookupArray[$urlSegment]}($request);
        } else {
            throw new \Exception("Unexpected role $role.");
        }
    }
}