Claude redid the router

README.md

@@ -6,13 +6,20 @@ NovaconiumPHP is a high-performance PHP framework designed with inspiration from
 
 Pronounced: Noh-vah-koh-nee-um
 
-Packagist: https://packagist.org/packages/4lt/novaconium 
-Master Repo: https://git.4lt.ca/4lt/novaconium
+* Packagist: https://packagist.org/packages/4lt/novaconium 
+* Master Repo: https://git.4lt.ca/4lt/novaconium
 
 ## Getting Started
 
-Novaconium is heavly influenced by docker, but you can use composer outside of docker.  
-You can [learn more about how novaconium works with composer](https://git.4lt.ca/4lt/novaconium/src/branch/master/docs/Install-Composer-On-Debian.md).
+Novaconium is designed to be developed primarily using Docker. Instead of relying on tools installed directly on your system, common development tasks are executed inside containers:
+
+* Composer runs inside a Docker container rather than on your host machine
+* Apache / PHP are served from containers instead of your local environment
+* Sass compilation is also handled within a container
+
+As long as you have Docker installed, you can use the full development environment without installing additional dependencies on your system.
+
+You can [learn more about how novaconium works with composer](https://git.4lt.ca/4lt/novaconium/src/branch/master/docs/Composer.md).
 
 ```bash
 PROJECTNAME=novaproject;
@@ -24,9 +31,9 @@ docker run --rm --interactive --tty --volume ./novaconium/:/app composer:latest
 cp -R novaconium/vendor/4lt/novaconium/skeleton/. .;
 
 # Edit .env
-# pwgen -cnsB1v 12 root password
-# pwgen -cnsB1v 12 mysql user password (need in both config and env)
-# pwgen -cnsB1v 64 framework key (need in config)
+# pwgen -cnsB1v 12 # root password
+# pwgen -cnsB1v 12 # mysql user password (need in both config and env)
+# pwgen -cnsB1v 64 # framework key (need in config)
 # Edit novaconium/App/config.php
 
 docker compose up -d

docs/Composer.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Update novaconium with composer in docker: ```docker run --rm --interactive --tt
 
 ## Install Composer natively on Debian
 
-Assuming you have nala installed:
+Assuming you have nala installed (otherwise use apt-get):
 
 ```bash
 sudo nala install curl php-cli php-mbstring git unzip

docs/Router.md

@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+# Router
+
+`Novaconium\Router` resolves the current HTTP request to a controller file, based on a route table defined in PHP config files. It supports exact-match routes and simple parameterized routes (e.g. `/users/{id}`).
+
+## How it works
+
+On construction, the router runs through this pipeline:
+
+1. **Load routes** — merges framework-level routes with app-level routes.
+2. **Prepare path** — normalizes `REQUEST_URI` into a clean path string.
+3. **Prepare query** — parses the query string into an array.
+4. **Determine request type** — `get` or `post`.
+5. **Find controller** — matches the path against the route table.
+6. **Resolve controller file** — turns the matched controller string into an actual file path, falling back to a 404 controller if needed.
+
+## Properties
+
+| Property | Type | Description |
+|---|---|---|
+| `$routes` | array | Combined route table (framework + app routes), keyed by path pattern. |
+| `$query` | array | Parsed query string parameters. |
+| `$path` | string | Normalized request path. |
+| `$controller` | string | Resolved controller identifier (e.g. `Users/show` or `NOVACONIUM/Errors`). |
+| `$controllerPath` | string | Absolute file path to the controller. |
+| `$parameters` | array | Named parameters extracted from a parameterized route match. |
+| `$requestType` | string | `'get'` or `'post'`. |
+
+## Route table format
+
+Routes are defined as an associative array, keyed by URL path. Each entry maps HTTP methods to a controller string:
+
+```php
+$routes = [
+    '/' => [
+        'get' => 'Home/index',
+    ],
+    '/users/{id}' => [
+        'get' => 'Users/show',
+    ],
+    '/login' => [
+        'get'  => 'Auth/loginForm',
+        'post' => 'Auth/login',
+    ],
+];
+```
+
+Controller strings starting with `NOVACONIUM` are resolved against the framework's controller directory (e.g. `NOVACONIUM/Errors` → `FRAMEWORKPATH/controllers/Errors.php`); all other controller strings are resolved against the app's controller directory (`BASEPATH/App/controllers/`).
+
+## Matching behavior
+
+### 1. Exact match
+
+The router first checks for an exact match between `$this->path` and a key in `$this->routes`. If found, and the current request type has a handler defined, that controller is returned immediately.
+
+### 2. Parameterized match
+
+If no exact match is found, the router scans the route table for patterns containing `{`. For each candidate:
+
+- The **static prefix** of the pattern (everything before the first `{`) must prefix-match the current path.
+- The pattern and the path must have the **same number of `/`-separated segments**.
+
+The first route pattern satisfying both conditions is treated as the match — the router does not keep searching for a "better" match after this point, even if the matched route turns out to have no handler for the current request method (see [Known quirks](#known-quirks) below).
+
+Once a candidate route is selected, the router walks its segments looking for the first `{param}` segment, extracts the corresponding path segment into `$this->parameters[paramName]`, and returns immediately with the controller for the current request type.
+
+### 3. No match
+
+If neither an exact nor a parameterized match is found, `$this->controller` is set to `'404'`, and `setRouteFile()` will fail to find a corresponding controller file, triggering the 404 fallback described below.
+
+## Controller file resolution (`setRouteFile`)
+
+Given the resolved `$this->controller` string:
+
+1. If it starts with `NOVACONIUM`, look in `FRAMEWORKPATH/controllers/`.
+2. Otherwise, look in `BASEPATH/App/controllers/`.
+3. If the file exists, use it.
+4. If not, fall back to `BASEPATH/App/controllers/404.php` if it exists.
+5. Otherwise, fall back to the framework's built-in `FRAMEWORKPATH/controllers/404.php`.
+
+## Known quirks
+
+These behaviors exist in the current implementation and are preserved intentionally for backward compatibility — they're documented here so they aren't mistaken for bugs during future changes.
+
+- **Only the first `{param}` in a route pattern is captured.** If a route pattern has multiple parameters (e.g. `/users/{id}/posts/{postId}`), only `id` is extracted into `$this->parameters`; `postId` is never processed, because the matching loop returns as soon as it finds the first parameter segment.
+- **The first prefix+segment-count match wins, even without a method handler.** If a parameterized route's static prefix and segment count match the request, but that route has no handler defined for the current request type (e.g. the route only defines `get` but the request is `post`), the router still commits to that route and returns `null` as the controller (which then falls through to the 404 controller). It does **not** continue searching for another route that might have a valid handler.
+- **No support for trailing wildcard or optional segments.** Segment counts must match exactly between the pattern and the path; there's no support for `*` or optional `{param?}` style segments.
+
+## Debugging
+
+Call `$router->debug()` to dump the resolved path, controller path, extracted parameters, and full route table as an HTML table, then halt execution via `die()`. Intended for development use only.
+
+## Example
+
+```php
+$router = new \Novaconium\Router();
+
+include $router->controllerPath;
+
+// Inside the controller, access route parameters via:
+$router->parameters['id'];
+```

skeleton/docker-compose.yml

@@ -1,12 +1,10 @@
 # Sample Docker Compose
 services:
   corxn:
-    image: 4lights/corxn:6.0.0
+    image: 4lights/corxn:8.5.3
     ports:
       - "8000:80"
     volumes:
-      - "/etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro"
-      - "/etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro"
       - ./novaconium:/data
       - ./data/logs:/var/log/apache2  # Optional Logs
       - "./logs:/data/logs"
@@ -29,8 +27,6 @@ services:
       MYSQL_USER: novaconium
       MYSQL_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_PASSWORD}
     volumes:
-      - "/etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro"
-      - "/etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro"
       - ./data/db:/var/lib/mysql
     networks:
       - internal
@@ -49,9 +45,6 @@ services:
       - PMA_USER=root
       - PMA_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
       - UPLOAD_LIMIT=200M
-    volumes:
-      - "/etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro"
-      - "/etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro"
 
 networks:
   proxy:

skeleton/novaconium/public/index.php

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 // ini_set('display_errors', 1);
 
 // Define the base path where the website is running from
-define('BASEPATH', dirname(__DIR__, 1));
+define('BASEPATH', dirname(__DIR__));
 
 // Load Composer's autoload file to handle class autoloading
 require BASEPATH . '/vendor/autoload.php';

src/Router.php

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 <?php
 namespace Novaconium;
+
 class Router {
     public $routes = [];
     public $query = [];
@@ -18,29 +19,30 @@ class Router {
         $this->controllerPath = $this->setRouteFile();
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Merge framework routes with app-defined routes (app routes can override framework routes).
+     */
     private function loadRoutes() {
-        require_once( \FRAMEWORKPATH . '/config/routes.php');
-        // Check if Path exists
+        require_once(\FRAMEWORKPATH . '/config/routes.php');
+
         if (file_exists(\BASEPATH . '/App/routes.php')) {
-            require_once( \BASEPATH . '/App/routes.php');
-        }
-        $routes = array_merge((array)$routes, (array)$framework_routes);
-
-        return $routes;
+            require_once(\BASEPATH . '/App/routes.php');
         }
 
+        return array_merge((array)$routes, (array)$framework_routes);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Normalize the request path: strip query string, trailing slash, and anything after "&".
+     */
     private function preparePath() {
         $path = parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], PHP_URL_PATH);
 
-        //homepage
         if ($path === '/') {
             return $path;
         }
 
-        // remove empty directory path
-        $path = rtrim($path, '/'); // remove trailing slash
-
-        //remove anything after and including ampersand
+        $path = rtrim($path, '/');
         $path = preg_replace('/&.+$/', '', $path);
 
         return $path;
@@ -49,82 +51,146 @@ class Router {
     private function prepareQuery() {
         $parsedUri  = parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
         $queryArray = [];
+
         if (isset($parsedUri['query'])) {
             parse_str($parsedUri['query'], $queryArray);
         }
+
         return $queryArray;
     }
 
     private function getRequestType() {
-        // is the requewst a get or post?
-        if (empty($_POST)) {
-            return 'get';
-        } else {
-            return 'post';
-        }
+        return empty($_POST) ? 'get' : 'post';
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Resolve the current path to a controller string.
+     * First tries an exact match, then falls back to matching parameterized
+     * routes like "/users/{id}".
+     */
     private function findController() {
-
-        // one to one match
-        if (array_key_exists($this->path, $this->routes)) {
-            if (!empty($this->routes[$this->path][$this->requestType])) {
-                return $this->routes[$this->path][$this->requestType];
-            }
+        $exactMatch = $this->findExactMatch();
+        if ($exactMatch !== null) {
+            return $exactMatch;
         }
 
-        foreach ($this->routes as $key => $value) {
-            // Check if key contains a curly bracket, if not continue.  We already checked above.
-            if (!strpos($key, '{')) continue;
-
-            // Remove everything after the curly bracket, from key
-            $keyPath = substr($key, 0, strpos($key, '{'));
-
-            //see if keyPath matches the first characters of $this->path, only the first characters have to match
-            if (strpos($this->path, $keyPath) === 0) {
-                
-                // We have a potential match. Now check if the parameter count is equal
-                $keyParams = explode('/', $key);
-                $pathParams = explode('/', $this->path);
-                $keyParamCount = count($keyParams);
-                $pathParamCount = count($pathParams);
-                if ($keyParamCount === $pathParamCount) {
-                    for ($i=0; $i < $pathParamCount; $i++) {
-                        if (strpos($keyParams[$i], '{') !== false) {
-                            $keyParams[$i] = substr($keyParams[$i], 1, -1);
-                            $this->parameters[$keyParams[$i]] = $pathParams[$i];
-                            return $this->routes[$key][$this->requestType];
-                        }
-                    }
-                }
-            }
+        $paramMatch = $this->findParameterizedMatch();
+        if ($paramMatch !== null) {
+            return $paramMatch;
         }
 
         return '404';
-        
     }
 
-    // checks if the file exists, sets file path
-    private function setRouteFile() {
+    private function findExactMatch() {
+        if (array_key_exists($this->path, $this->routes)
+            && !empty($this->routes[$this->path][$this->requestType])
+        ) {
+            return $this->routes[$this->path][$this->requestType];
+        }
 
+        return null;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Loop over parameterized routes (those containing "{") looking for the
+     * first one whose static prefix matches the path AND whose segment count
+     * matches. As soon as such a route is found, control is handed off to
+     * extractControllerFromMatch(), which returns immediately (even with a
+     * `null` controller) -- this mirrors the original code's behavior of
+     * stopping the search on the first prefix+segment-count match, rather
+     * than continuing on to try other candidate routes.
+     */
+    private function findParameterizedMatch() {
+        foreach ($this->routes as $routePattern => $methods) {
+            // Only parameterized routes (containing "{") are relevant here;
+            // plain routes were already checked in findExactMatch().
+            if (strpos($routePattern, '{') === false) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            if (!$this->routeMatchesPath($routePattern)) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            if (!$this->segmentCountsMatch($routePattern)) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            // Original behavior: once we find a route with a matching prefix
+            // and segment count, we commit to it -- even if it turns out
+            // there's no handler for the current request method.
+            return $this->extractControllerFromMatch($routePattern, $methods);
+        }
+
+        return null;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Quick check: does the static portion of the route pattern (everything
+     * before the first "{") prefix-match the current path?
+     */
+    private function routeMatchesPath($routePattern) {
+        $staticPrefix = substr($routePattern, 0, strpos($routePattern, '{'));
+
+        return strpos($this->path, $staticPrefix) === 0;
+    }
+
+    private function segmentCountsMatch($routePattern) {
+        $patternSegments = explode('/', $routePattern);
+        $pathSegments    = explode('/', $this->path);
+
+        return count($patternSegments) === count($pathSegments);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Extracts named parameters into $this->parameters and returns the
+     * controller for the current request type (or null if that method
+     * isn't defined for this route).
+     *
+     * Matches the original quirk: only the FIRST "{param}" segment found
+     * gets added to $this->parameters, and the method returns right away --
+     * any additional "{param}" segments later in the pattern are never
+     * processed. This is preserved as-is rather than "fixed", since
+     * behavior should stay unchanged.
+     */
+    private function extractControllerFromMatch($routePattern, $methods) {
+        $patternSegments = explode('/', $routePattern);
+        $pathSegments    = explode('/', $this->path);
+
+        foreach ($patternSegments as $i => $segment) {
+            if (strpos($segment, '{') !== false) {
+                $paramName = substr($segment, 1, -1); // strip { }
+                $this->parameters[$paramName] = $pathSegments[$i];
+
+                return $methods[$this->requestType] ?? null;
+            }
+        }
+
+        return null;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Resolve the controller string to an actual file path, falling back to a 404 controller.
+     */
+    private function setRouteFile() {
         if (str_starts_with($this->controller, 'NOVACONIUM')) {
             $trimmed = substr($this->controller, strlen('NOVACONIUM/'));
-            $cp = \FRAMEWORKPATH . '/controllers/' . $trimmed . '.php';
+            $controllerPath = \FRAMEWORKPATH . '/controllers/' . $trimmed . '.php';
         } else {
-            $cp = \BASEPATH . '/App/controllers/' . $this->controller . '.php';
+            $controllerPath = \BASEPATH . '/App/controllers/' . $this->controller . '.php';
         }
 
-        if (file_exists($cp)) {
-            return $cp;
-        } else {
-            //Check if 404 exits
-            if (file_exists( \BASEPATH . '/App/controllers/404.php')) {
+        if (file_exists($controllerPath)) {
+            return $controllerPath;
+        }
+
+        if (file_exists(\BASEPATH . '/App/controllers/404.php')) {
             return \BASEPATH . '/App/controllers/404.php';
-            } else {
+        }
+
         return \FRAMEWORKPATH . '/controllers/404.php';
     }
-        }
-    }
 
     public function debug() {
         echo '<div id="router-debug-container" class="debug">';
@@ -137,6 +203,4 @@ class Router {
 
         die();
     }
-    
-
 }

src/novaconium.php

@@ -1,5 +1,16 @@
 <?php
 
+use Novaconium\Logger;
+use Novaconium\Session;
+use Novaconium\MessageHandler;
+use Novaconium\Database;
+use Novaconium\Post;
+use Novaconium\Redirect;
+use Novaconium\Router;
+
+$db = null;
+$post = null;
+
 // --- Load Config ---
 if (file_exists(\BASEPATH . '/App/config.php')) {
     require_once \BASEPATH . '/App/config.php';
@@ -11,7 +22,6 @@ require_once \FRAMEWORKPATH . '/src/functions.php';
 require_once \FRAMEWORKPATH . '/src/twig.php';
 
 // --- Logging ---
-use Novaconium\Logger;
 $log = new Logger(\BASEPATH . $config['logfile'], $config['loglevel']);
 
 // --- Twig Data Array ---
@@ -21,35 +31,29 @@ $data['matomo_url'] = $config['matomo_url'] ?? '';
 $data['matomo_id'] = $config['matomo_id'] ?? '0';
 
 // --- Session ---
-use Novaconium\Session;
 $session = new Session();
 $data['token']    = $session->get('token');
 $data['username'] = $session->get('username');
 
 // --- Messages ---
-use Novaconium\MessageHandler;
 $messages = new MessageHandler($session->flash('messages'));
 foreach (['error', 'notice'] as $key) {
     $data[$key] = $messages->showMessages($key);
 }
 
 // --- Database ---
-use Novaconium\Database;
 if (!empty($config['database']['host'])) {
     $db = new Database($config['database']);
 }
 
 // --- POST Wrapper ---
-use Novaconium\Post;
 if (!empty($_POST)) {
     $post = new Post($_POST);
 }
 
 // --- Redirect Handler ---
-use Novaconium\Redirect;
 $redirect = new Redirect();
 
 // --- Router ---
-use Novaconium\Router;
 $router = new Router();
 require_once $router->controllerPath;

twig/head.html.twig

@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
 >
 
 {# STYLESHEET #}
-<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/main.css">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/novaconium.css">
 
 {# highlight.js #}
 <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/highlight.js/11.9.0/highlight.min.js"></script>