Question

Is it possible to generate an url mapped by an object ?
The Pojo Object Mapping is a native function of PlayFramework (1.2.2), but what about the reverse routing?

I would like to do this :

Java:

class MyControler extends Controller {
    public static function myAction(MyObject o) {}
}

Route: (something like this ? If it’s possible, i don’t know the syntax to do it !)

GET    /folder/{myObject.name}/{myObject.id}      MyController.myAction(myObject)

Template :

<a href="@{MyControler.myAction(myObject)}">Go</a>

Expected result :

<a href="/folder/xxNamexx/33">Go</a> 

(I have a Symfony background, and I search an equivalent to the Object Route Class)

I think Play! don’t support this functionnaly, could someone confirm or refute this idea?
Thank you.

Answer 1

According to Julien Richard-Foy, there is no solution.

So I propose a workaround, a little ugly because the route will be describe twice.
This quick solution breaks the MVC model, but it’s possible to do otherwise, sending a UrlHelper to the template for exemple.

In your model, add a generateUrlDetail() method :

public String generateUrlDetail() {
    return String.format("/myRoute/%s/%d-%s.html", JavaExtensions.slugify(this.foo.name), this.id, JavaExtensions.slugify(this.bar));
}

Tips : Play! allows to define a route with more identifiers than necessary. So it’s possible to write a route with 2+ variables, but only the ID will be used in the action.

GET /myRoute/{foo}/{<[0-9]+>id}-{bar}.html           Foo.detail(id)

And in your template :

<a href="${myObject.generateUrlDetail()}">Go</a>
Render : <a href="/myRoute/foo-name/13-bar-description.html">Go</a>

And it works 🙂