Laravel & Namespacing

Question

This is probably nitpicky, but I was wondering how the namespace for the Laravel 4.2 "Route" works (using the resource function).

So... in all the documentation (http://laravel.com/docs/4.2/controllers#resource-controllers), you see this:

Route::resource('photo', 'PhotoController');

However, when I go to the "Route" documentation (http://laravel.com/api/4.2/Illuminate/Routing/Route.html) you can see that the function "resource", doesn't exist there. Instead, it exists under "Router" (http://laravel.com/api/4.2/Illuminate/Routing/Router.html).

How do I use the PHP "use" statements to specify that I'm using the resource function? The example itself is accurate and works when I call (in that it shows all the routes that I expect):

php artisan routes

How does Laravel make the Route vs. Router namespace work?

Answer 1

Laravel heavily uses Facades. They're basically classes that allow static access (Route::resource()) to methods that are not static at all. In the background it makes a new instance of the Router class and then calls the method resource(). You can find more information about it in the docs

If you are looking for proper auto-completion and other IDE features that rely on resolving the class, try the laravel ide helper

Answer 2

The thing is that Route here is not class but it's a facade. If you look at Facade class reference you will see that Route facade is using Illuminate\Routing\Router router so it's the class you want