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Routes.xml File Reference Documentation

Introduction

The routes.xml file is an essential configuration file in Magento 2, particularly when it comes to defining and managing custom routes. This file plays a crucial role in routing HTTP requests to the appropriate controllers in your Magento 2 module. In this document, you will learn how to effectively utilize the routes.xml file to create and manage routes in your Magento 2 module.

File Location and Structure

The routes.xml file resides in the etc/frontend or etc/adminhtml directory of your module. The exact file path depends on whether your module is for the frontend or admin area of Magento 2. The file follows a structured XML format and consists of multiple elements that define the routes and their associated controllers.

Here is an example of the basic structure of a routes.xml file:

<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:App/etc/routes.xsd">
    <router id="[ROUTER_ID]">
        <route id="[ROUTE_ID]" frontName="[FRONT_NAME]">
            <module name="[MODULE_NAME]"/>
        </route>
    </router>
</config>

Let's dive into each of these elements to gain a deeper understanding.

<config> Element

The <config> element is the root element of the routes.xml file. It defines the XML namespace and specifies the schema location using the xmlns:xsi and xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation attributes, respectively. You don't need to modify these attributes as they refer to the default schema provided by Magento.

<router> Element

The <router> element is used to define the router ID, which is a unique identifier for the router. The router ID is used to group related routes together. In most cases, you will use either standard or admin as the router ID. For example, <router id="standard"> defines a router for the frontend area, whereas <router id="admin"> defines a router for the admin area.

There are the following routers in Magento 2:

Admin Router: The admin router is responsible for processing requests to the Magento Admin panel. It's configured in the app/etc/di.xml file and any additional admin routers are added in the adminhtml/routes.xml file. The default frontName for the admin router is "admin" but this can be changed for security reasons.

Standard Router: The standard router is responsible for processing requests to the frontend of the Magento website. It handles all the routing for CMS pages, product pages, category pages, and customer account pages.

CMS Router: The CMS router is specifically for routing requests to CMS pages such as Home page, About Us, and Contact Us.

Url Rewrite Router: The URL rewrite router is used for routing requests that have been rewritten for SEO purposes. For example, if you have a product page with a URL like yourstore.com/catalog/product/view/id/50, you could rewrite it to yourstore.com/my-awesome-product. The URL rewrite router is responsible for interpreting requests to these SEO-friendly URLs and forwarding them to the correct place.

Default Router: The default router is the last router to be processed. If no other router is able to process the request, the default router will process it. This is usually a 404 page not found error, but it could be configured to redirect to a custom page.

Note
The order of these routers matter. Each request in Magento is processed in the following order: admin, standard, cms, url rewrite, and default. If the request matches a route in the admin router, for example, it will be processed there and not passed to any subsequent routers.

<route> Element

The <route> element represents a specific route in Magento 2. It consists of three attributes: id, frontName, and optional disabled.

  • The id attribute specifies a unique identifier for the route and is used internally by Magento to identify and match the incoming requests.
  • The frontName attribute defines the URL segment that precedes the action name in the URL. For example, if frontName="custom", the URL https://example.com/custom/index/index will map to the Index/Index action of the associated controller.
  • The optional disabled attribute, when set to true, disables the route. This can be useful when you want to temporarily deactivate a route without removing it from the routes.xml file.

<module> Element

The <module> element is a child element of the <route> element, and it specifies the name of the module that handles the route. The name attribute should match the module's name as defined in its module.xml file.

Example

Let's walk through an example to illustrate how the routes.xml file works. Assume we have a module named Acme_CustomModule that needs to define a custom route for frontend pages.

Here is the routes.xml file for this module:

<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:App/etc/routes.xsd">
    <router id="standard">
        <route id="custom" frontName="custom">
            <module name="Acme_CustomModule"/>
        </route>
    </router>
</config>

In this example, we defined a route with the id of "custom" and frontName of "custom". The associated module is specified as Acme_CustomModule.

Now, let's assume we have a controller named Index inside the Acme\CustomModule\Controller\Index namespace. With this routes.xml configuration, the URL https://example.com/custom/index/index will map to the Index controller's index action.

Conclusion

The routes.xml file is a crucial component for defining and managing routes in Magento 2. By carefully configuring this file, you can easily map incoming HTTP requests to the appropriate controllers within your module. Understanding the structure and elements of the routes.xml file will empower you to create custom routes efficiently. Remember to adhere to the XML structure and use correct attribute values to ensure proper routing functionality.