Laravel Routing in WordPress

Acorn allows you to use Laravel's routing functionality on your WordPress sites, and will automatically handle Laravel routes defined in the routes/web.php file if it exists.

Routes are an easier way to implement virtual pages in WordPress.

Basic routing example #

Create the route file #

Create routes/web.php with the following:

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Web Routes
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here is where you can register web routes for your application.
|
*/

Route::view('/welcome/', 'welcome')->name('welcome');

Create the view file #

Create resources/views/welcome.blade.php with the following:

@extends('layouts.app')

@section('content')
  <h1>Welcome</h1>
@endsection

Update Acorn's configuration #

Find where Application::configure is used in your setup. On a Sage theme, this would be functions.php.

Add ->withRouting(web: base_path('routes/web.php')):

 Application::configure()
     ->withProviders([
         App\Providers\ThemeServiceProvider::class,
     ])
+    ->withRouting(web: base_path('routes/web.php'))
     ->boot();

See Advanced booting for more examples.

Configuring SEO elements #

Since registered routes are dynamic, WordPress is not aware of how to handle some SEO elements and functionality:

• Setting the canonical URL
• Setting the <title>
• Adding SEO-related meta data
• Adding pages to the sitemap

Laravel's Route facade allows you to access information about the route, which can be used with hooks to populate this data:

/**
 * Set the page <title> for the welcome route
 */
add_filter('pre_get_document_title', function ($title) {
    $name = Route::currentRouteName();
    if ($name === 'welcome') {
        return 'Welcome Page';
    }

    return $name;
});

Advanced routing features #

For more complex applications, you can use:

• Controllers, Middleware, and HTTP Kernel - Organize route logic with controllers, filter requests with middleware, and customize the HTTP kernel
• Eloquent Models - Work with WordPress data using Laravel's ORM in your controllers

Using controllers #

Instead of defining route logic directly in your routes file, you can organize it into controller classes:

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\PostController;

Route::get('/api/posts', [PostController::class, 'index']);
Route::get('/api/posts/{id}', [PostController::class, 'show']);

Applying middleware #

Protect routes with middleware for authentication, rate limiting, and more:

Route::middleware('auth')->group(function () {
    Route::post('/api/posts', [PostController::class, 'store']);
    Route::put('/api/posts/{id}', [PostController::class, 'update']);
});

Route caching #

If you're using routes then you should enable Laravel's route cache during your deployment process:

$ wp acorn route:cache