5 Ways to Link to a Route Using Laravel

In this blog post, we’ll explore 5 methods for linking to routes in Laravel Blade templates.

Whether you’re dealing with named or unnamed routes, routes with or without parameters, or using route model binding for Eloquent Models, we’ve got you covered.

Prerequisites

Before we can start linking to routes in Laravel Blade templates, we need to define the routes in the web.php file. This file serves as the entry point for our application’s routes, allowing us to specify URL patterns and associate them with the appropriate controller methods or closures.

In the examples provided throughout this post, we assume that the routes are defined in the routes/web.php file as follows:

use App\Http\Controllers\ProfileController;
use App\Http\Controllers\ProductController;
use App\Http\Controllers\PostController;
use App\Http\Controllers\UserController;

Route::get('/profile', [ProfileController::class, 'show'])->name('profile');
Route::get('/products/{id}', [ProductController::class, 'show'])->name('product');
Route::get('/users/{id}', [UserController::class, 'show'])->name('user.show');
Route::get('/posts/{post}', [PostController::class, 'show']);

Now let’s dive in and create some links to these routes!

Method 1: Linking to Named Routes

The most common way to link to a route in Laravel Blade is by using a named route. Named routes allow us to reference a specific route using a unique name.

To link to a named route in Blade, we can use the route helper function with the name of the route as the parameter. Here’s an example of linking to a named route:

<a href="{{ route('profile') }}">Profile</a>

In the above example, profile is the name of the named route defined in the web.php file. By using the route helper, Laravel will generate the appropriate URL for the named route, ensuring that our links are always accurate even if the route URL changes.

To find the correct named route to link to, we can use the route:list command in the Laravel artisan CLI. Running php artisan route:list will display a comprehensive list of all the available routes in our application, including their names and corresponding URIs. This can be helpful when we need to locate the specific named route to use in our link.

Method 2: Linking to Named Routes with Parameters

In some cases, we may need to pass parameters to the route when generating the link. Laravel provides a convenient way to accomplish this by including the parameters as additional arguments in the route helper function.

For example, suppose we have a named route called user.show that accepts an id parameter. We can pass the parameter value as an associative array in the route helper, like this:

<a href="{{ route('user.show', ['id' => $user->id]) }}">User Profile</a>

In the example above, we’re linking to the user.show named route and passing the id parameter with the value of $user->id. Laravel will automatically replace the {id} placeholder in the route definition with the provided value, generating the correct URL for the link.

By using named routes with parameters, we can dynamically generate links that incorporate specific parameter values. This is particularly useful when creating links to show individual resources or perform actions on specific records within our application.

Method 3: Linking to Routes without Named Routes

Although named routes are commonly used, we can also directly specify the URL pattern in the link. This approach is useful when we want to link to a route without relying on a named route.

<a href="/about">About</a>

Method 4: Linking to Routes without Named Routes but With Parameters

In some cases, you may want to link to a route without relying on named routes but still include parameters in the URL. Laravel allows you to accomplish this by directly specifying the URL pattern in the link.

For example, let’s assume we have a route that accepts a user parameter and displays the user’s profile page. To create a link to this route, you can use the following syntax:

<a href="/users/{{ $user->id }}">User Profile</a>

In the code above, we specify the URL pattern directly in the href attribute of the anchor tag: <a>. The {{ $user->id }} part is a placeholder that will be replaced with the actual value of the id property of the $user object.

By using this approach, we can create dynamic links that include parameter values directly in the URL. It’s important to note that since we’re not using named routes, changes to the URL pattern in the route definition may require updating the corresponding links throughout the application.

Method 5: Linking to Routes with Route Model Binding

Laravel provides a powerful feature called route model binding that simplifies working with specific model instances in routes. With route model binding, you can automatically resolve Eloquent models based on route parameters.

To link to a route using route model binding, follow these steps:

1. Define the route with a parameter representing the model’s identifier. For example, let’s assume we have a Post model and want to create a route that displays a specific post:

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

2. In the corresponding controller method, you can type-hint the method parameter with the model class. Laravel will automatically resolve the model instance based on the route parameter:

public function show(Post $post)
{
    // Your logic here
}

In the code above, the $post parameter will be automatically resolved with an instance of the Post model based on the route parameter.

3. In your Blade template, you can generate a link to the controller action using the route helper and providing the appropriate route name and model instance. For example:

<a href="{{ route('posts.show', $post) }}">{{ $post->title }}</a>

In the above example, posts.show is the route name, and $post is the model instance that will be automatically resolved based on the route parameter. When the link is clicked, it will invoke the show method in the PostController with the resolved $post instance.

By using route model binding, you can easily pass the model instance directly to a controller method without the need for manual retrieval of the model from the database.

Conclusion

Linking to routes in Laravel Blade templates can be used inside your content, navigation menus, action buttons, and various other interactive elements in our applications. I highly recommend using named routes and route model binding for any application, as these techniques provide the highest flexibility, maintainability, and improved code readability.

I encourage you to experiment with these techniques and add proper interlinking and navigation to your Laravel applications. Happy coding!

References

• Routing – Named Routes (Laravel documentation)
• Route Model Binding (Laravel documentation)