Question

Is there an equivalent to Sinatra’s style URL routing for use with objective-C? I wish to map strings to functions with arguments to handle some internal navigation logic.

I would like to have a controller manage routes like what happens in Davis.js, Express, Sinatra etc. I know TTNavigationController has this mapping, but I am looking for something more lightweight and not tied to a UIKit (or similar) NavigationController.

Something which would would work like the following:

 // in a controller
 [Router map:@"/page/:name/" toSelector:@selector(loadPage:)];

 // then elsewhere
 [Router dispatch:@"/page/about/"];

I understand this is possible to create this myself, but before going down this route (excuse the pun) I would like to know if there is anything out there already. I created my own JavaScript implementation previously, then weeks later a number of superior libraries were created/publicised.

Answer 1

I have created an implementation of this on GutHub: https://github.com/rc1/RCRouter.

It is not yet battle tested but a proof of concept and is very likely needs some improvements. Any help to improve it will be much appreciated.

Here is the Example Usage usage:

#include "RCRouter.h"

-(id)init {

    // map routes
    [RCRouter map:@"/page/:title/" to:self with:@selector(page:)];
    [RCRouter map:@"/color/:r/:g/:b/:a/" to:self with:@selector(color:)];

    // dispatch routes
    [RCRouter dispatch:@"/page/welcome/"];
    [RCRouter dispatch:@"/color/255/255/255/255/"];

}

- (void)page:(NSDictionary*)params {

    NSString *pageTitle = [params objectForKey:@"title"];

}

- (void)color:(NSDictionary*)params {

    float red = [[params objectForKey:@"r"] floatValue];
    float green = [[params objectForKey:@"g"] floatValue];
    float blue = [[params objectForKey:@"b"] floatValue];

}

Delegate

Add delegate to the Router can also be added by using the following:

[RCRouter addDelegate:self];

The following optional delegate methods are available as part of :

- (BOOL)allow:(NSString*)route;
- (void)willDispatchRoute:(NSString*)route to:(id)object;
- (void)didDispatchRoute:(NSString*)route to:(id)object;
- (void)noRouteFor:(NSString*)route;