URL slugs
A common use case for explicit routes is the design of slugs or vanity URLs. For example, consider the URL of a repository on Github, http://www.github.com/balderdashy/sails. In Sails, we might define this route at the bottom of our config/routes.js file like so:
'get /:account/:repo': {
controller: 'RepoController',
action: 'show',
skipAssets: true
}
In your RepoController's show action, we'd use req.param('account') and req.param('repo') to look up the data for the appropriate repository, then pass it in to the appropriate view as locals. The skipAssets option ensures that the vanity route doesn't accidentally match any of our assets (e.g. /images/logo.png), so they are still accessible.
Slugs that might contain slashes
There is one particular case where the simple implementation of URL pattern variables (e.g. :foo) is not enough.
If your application will tolerate slugs containing unescaped forward slash (/) characters, then instead of addressing the dynamic parts of your route address path using pattern variables like :foo, you will need to use a URL wildcard suffix (*).
For example:
'get /admin/email-template-previews/*': {
action: 'admin/view-email-template-preview',
skipAssets: true
}
To receive the runtime value corresponding with this wildcard (*) in a modern Sails action, use urlWildcardSuffix at the top level of your action definition to indicate the name of the input you would like to use to represent the dynamic value:
urlWildcardSuffix: 'template',
inputs: {
template: {
description: 'The relative path to an EJS template within our `views/emails/` folder -- WITHOUT the file extension.',
extendedDescription: 'Use strings like "foo" or "foo/bar", but NEVER "foo/bar.ejs" or "/foo/bar". For example, '+
'"internal/email-contact-form" would send an email using the "views/emails/internal/email-contact-form.ejs" template.',
example: 'email-reset-password',
type: 'string',
required: true
},
},
fn: async function({ template }) {
// …
}
Notes
- Alternatively, in a classic (req,res) action, you can use
req.param('0')to access the dynamic value of a route's URL wildcard suffix (*).- For more background, see https://www.npmjs.com/package/machine-as-action
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