[v0.10] wildcard route ':country_id' conflicts with existing edges in path '/country/:country_id/edit'

[vzool]

Hi,

I'm trying to make a "Restful Web" and I followed the documentation to do these End-Points:

• List Countries - GET /country
• Show Create Form - GET /country/create
• Create Country - POST /country
• Get Country - GET /country/:country_id
• Show Country Edit Form - GET /country/:country_id/edit
• Update Country - PUT /country/:country_id
• Delete Country - DELETE /country/:country_id

But I can't make it right, here is my routes:

domains {

  localhost {

    static {
      # ..
    }

    routes {
        # ..

        index {
            # ..
        }

        country{
        
            path = "/country"
            controller = "CountryController"

            routes{

               path = "/"
               
                country_create{
                    path = "/create"
                    action = "Create"
                }
                country_store{
                    action = "Store"
                    method = "POST"
                }

                routes{
                    path = "/:country_id"
                    routes{
                        country_show{
                            action = "Show"
                        }
                        country_edit{
                            path = "/edit"
                            action = "Edit"
                        }
                        country_update{
                            method = "PUT"
                        }
                        country_delete{
                            method = "Delete"
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

    } # end - routes

  } # end - localhost

} # end - domains

And here is my controller:

package controllers

import (
	"aahframework.org/aah.v0"
)

// CountryController struct application controller
type CountryController struct {
	*aah.Context
}

// Index method is country list page.
func (a *CountryController) Index() {
	a.Reply().Ok().Text("Country Index Page")
}

// Create method is a form to create new country record page.
func (a *CountryController) Create() {
	a.Reply().Ok().Text("Country Create Page")
}

// Store method is country create record.
func (a *CountryController) Store() {
	a.Reply().Ok().Text("Country Store Page")
}

// Show method is country one record page.
func (a *CountryController) Show() {
	a.Reply().Ok().Text("Country Show Page")
}

// Edit method is country edit form record page.
func (a *CountryController) Edit() {
	a.Reply().Ok().Text("Country Edit Page")
}

// Update method is country to do update record page.
func (a *CountryController) Update() {
	a.Reply().Ok().Text("Country Update Page")
}

// Delete method is country to delete record.
func (a *CountryController) Delete() {
	a.Reply().Ok().Text("Country Delete Page")
}

What I did wrong?

Thanks

[vzool]

By the way, I did try to figured it how to be fixed and I found it in radix_tree.go and I commented lines from 245 to 248, after that the problem gone. But, there is a conflict between /country/create & /country/:country_id/edit.

I think radix_tree.go can't distinguish between 2 level and 3 level urls seperation! Is this a bug?

[jeevatkm]

@vzool aah router tells you have problem in route definitions, those lines (245 to 248) are required not to be commented.

I will try to explain, problem is these two route definition (happening at same level; not level 2 or level 3)

• Show Create Form - GET /country/create
• Get Country - GET /country/:country_id

For example:

Request 1: http://localhost:8080/country/create
Request 2: http://localhost:8080/country/10001

Where it would send it to???

This is the problem router tells you. You need to thing about route URLs.

I hope it helps.

---

BTW, remove this line path = "/", its not required.

[vzool]

@jeevatkm Aha, I see.

Request 1: should send to page that Show Create Form
Request 2: should send to page that Show one record

Ok, I will looking for a different naming to /country/create.

But, when I remove path = "/" and access /country by GET call it returns an error back:
"405 Method Not Allowed"

In fact, I felt it's a little strange to me at first time!

[jeevatkm]

@vzool I thought to give you a suggestion.

Typically if you design Web and REST API together in one application. Following design approach works well and makes sense.

Web:

• Show Create Form - GET /country/create
• Show Country Edit Form - GET /country/edit

REST API (if API application itself separate project, then /api not needed): Always version your API, its good approach

• List Countries - GET /api/v1/countries
• Create Country - POST /api/v1/countries
• Get Country - GET api/v1/countries/:countryId
• Update Country - PUT /api/v1/countries/:countryId
• Delete Country - DELETE /api/v1/countries/:countryId

Controllers package structure -

/app/controllers
                /country.go => CountryController
                /api/v1
                      /api_country.go => ApiCountryController

So routes definition would look like -

routes {
  # Web routes definition
  # You can keep this in separate file and reference it here
  # include "routes/web.conf" 
  country {
    path = "/country"
    controller = "CountryController"
    routes {
      country_create {
        action = "Create"
      }
      country_edit {
        method = "post"
        action = "Edit"
      }
    }
  }

  # API routes definition
  # You can keep this in separate file and reference it here
  # include "routes/api_v1.conf" 
  api_v1 {
    path = "/api/v1"
    routes {
      api_countries {
        path = "/countries"
        controller = "api/v1/ApiCountryController"
        action = "List"
        routes {
          api_countries_create {
            method = "post"
            action = "Create"
          }
          routes {
            path = "/:countryId"
            routes {
              api_countries_get {
                action = "Show"
              }
              api_countries_update {
                method = "put"
                action = "Update"
              }
              api_countries_delete {
                method = "delete"
                action = "Delete"
              }
            }
          } # end of "/:countryId" routes
        }
      } # end of "/countries" routes        
    }
  } # end of "/api/v1" routes
}

I hope this would give a very good start point.

[vzool]

@jeevatkm Thanks for your suggestions, it's helpful.

In fact, I'm trying to implement a "Pyramid Hierarchy URL" for a situation like this:

Country -> State -> City -> District -> House

or simply

Country -> City -> District

So, the routes would be something like this:

+-----------+-----------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Method    | URI                                                       | Controller@Action                         |
+-----------+-----------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| GET|HEAD  | country                                                   | Controllers\CountryController@Index       |
| GET|HEAD  | country/create                                            | Controllers\CountryController@Create      |
| POST      | country                                                   | Controllers\CountryController@Store       |
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}                                         | Controllers\CountryController@Show        |
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}/edit                                    | Controllers\CountryController@Edit        |
| PUT       | country/{country}                                         | Controllers\CountryController@Update      |
| DELETE    | country/{country}                                         | Controllers\CountryController@Delete      |
+-----------+-----------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}/city                                    | Controllers\CityController@Index          |
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}/city/create                             | Controllers\CityController@Create         |
| POST      | country/{country}/city                                    | Controllers\CityController@Store          |
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}/city/{city}                             | Controllers\CityController@Show           |
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}/city/{city}/edit                        | Controllers\CityController@Edit           |
| PUT       | country/{country}/city/{city}                             | Controllers\CityController@Update         |
| DELETE    | country/{country}/city/{city}                             | Controllers\CityController@Delete         |
+-----------+-----------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}/city/{city}/district                    | Controllers\DistrictController@Index      |
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}/city/{city}/district/create             | Controllers\DistrictController@Create     |
| POST      | country/{country}/city/{city}/district                    | Controllers\DistrictController@Store      |
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}/city/{city}/district/{district}         | Controllers\DistrictController@Show       |
| GET|HEAD  | country/{country}/city/{city}/district/{district}/edit    | Controllers\DistrictController@Edit       |
| PUT       | country/{country}/city/{city}/district/{district}         | Controllers\DistrictController@Update     |
| DELETE    | country/{country}/city/{city}/district/{district}         | Controllers\DistrictController@Delete     |
+-----------+-----------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+

But, I don't know how can I do that with current routing system! I think we need new routing system as an option to cover this area.

What do you think?

[jeevatkm]

@vzool As far as my understanding, not only aah or with any routing library; you may not be able to achieve if you have path param or wildcard Paramlike these-

country/create
country/{country}
country/{country}/edit

So, no issues with currently routing system (FYI, aah uses radix tree implementation from this library https://github.com/julienschmidt/httprouter).

I'm always looking for a ways to improve aah to give best framework experience. If you come across any library which supports above routes structure, please let me know. Surely I will learn and adapt that feature into aah routing system.

PS: You may have to rethink your URL structure, that's why I gave you optimal URL design approach.

[vzool]

@jeevatkm I feel that "Pyramid Hierarchy URL" looks and behave just like "BTree", as I think Radix Tree did it too.

But, why the Method is missing here, algorithm just care about naming and forget the Method entirely!

BTY, I found an interesting library can implement this new way, it's called Bone, and I really did a testing for it here.

Funny picture used for the library, ha ha ha

[vzool]

@jeevatkm While I'm testing it, it looks and behave really fast with ton of features.

[jeevatkm]

@vzool Thank you for your finding, I have a look and get back to you 😄

[jeevatkm]

@vzool Seems like, your input gonna make aah much more flexible on routing system with multiple routing algorithms.

I have created this issue #160 to do overhaul on aah routing system. I have scheduled it for v0.12.0 release since I'm doing considerable internal improvements (currently in-progress) and features planned for v0.11.0.

I hope this plan works for you 😄

[vzool]

@jeevatkm Of course, I'm totally fine with that plan.
Let's give any idea a proper time to complete its shape into reality.