05. Routes

Routes

To navigate between sides and for the transport of parameters, Nalu uses routes. A route is a String. Parts of the route are separated with '/'.

Example of a correct route:

/myShell/routePart01/parameter01

Let's look at the route.

The first part of the route is always the name of the shell. Nalu will use this part of the route and searches for a shell with that name. In case the name of the shell has not changed compared to the shell from the route before, Nalu does nothing.

In case the name of the shell changed, Nalu will remove the last shell and replace it with the new shell.

Next Nalu will look for controllers, that match the route part. Matching controllers will be created and added to the shell.

Parameters inside a route are optional. In case a route has parameters, Nalu will inject the parameters into the newly created controllers. Nalu will identify parameters inside a route in case the part of the route start with ':' or the part is inside '{}'.

Of course, the route parts can be a combination of several parts. So, routes might look like this:

/myShell/routePart01
/myShell/routePart01/routePart02
/myShell/routePart01/routePart02/routePart03

Parameters inside a route can be added to the end of the route or inside the route. The only limitation for parameters is: parameters can never be the first part of a route!

These are all legal routes:

/myShell/routePart01/parameter01
/myShell/routePart01/routePart02/:parameter01
/myShell/routePart01/:parameter01/routePart02/{parameter02}
/myShell/routePart01/{parameter01}/routePart02/{parameter02}/routePart03

Parameters

In case a route has parameters, they have to be added to the route of the @Controller-annotation:

@Controller(route = "/application/myRoute/:parameterName",
            selector = 'content',
            componentInterface = IMyComponent.class,
            component = MyComponent.class)

To enable parameters, just add: /:parameterName to the route. Parameters can be used everywhere in a route, except as first part of a route! It is possible to have more than one parameter. If a route contains a parameter, it is necessary, that the controller implements a method called: set[ParameterName](String value) and annotate this method with @AcceptParameter("parameterName")-annotation.

The type of the parameter is always String.

You can add as many parameters as you like. Every parameter has to Start with '/:'.

Note

Characters like '?', '&' and '#' are characters that can not be used inside a route, nor as a parameter value. A parameter value containing a '/'-character is also illegal. If you like to use this values, you need to escape them.