some routing enhancements - still a work in progress.

laravel/controller.php

-<?php namespace Laravel;
+<?php namespace Laravel; use Laravel\Routing\Destination;
 
-abstract class Controller {
+abstract class Controller implements Destination {
 
 	/**
-	 * A stub method that will be called before every request to the controller.
+	 * The "before" filters defined for the controller.
 	 *
-	 * If a value is returned by the method, it will be halt the request cycle
-	 * and will be considered the response to the request.
+	 * @var array
+	 */
+	public $before = array();
+
+	/**
+	 * The "after" filters defined for the controller.
 	 *
-	 * @return mixed
+	 * @var array
 	 */
-	public function before() {}
+	public $after = array();
+
+	/**
+	 * Get an array of filter names defined for the destination.
+	 *
+	 * @param  string  $name
+	 * @return array
+	 */
+	public function filters($name)
+	{
+		return $this->$name;
+	}
 
 	/**
 	 * Magic Method to handle calls to undefined functions on the controller.

laravel/laravel.php

@@ -39,8 +39,8 @@ if (Config::get('session.driver') !== '')
  * be returned to the browser.
  */
 require SYS_PATH.'request'.EXT;
-require SYS_PATH.'routing/route'.EXT;
 require SYS_PATH.'routing/router'.EXT;
+require SYS_PATH.'routing/route'.EXT;
 require SYS_PATH.'routing/loader'.EXT;
 require SYS_PATH.'routing/caller'.EXT;
 

laravel/routing/caller.php

@@ -4,28 +4,6 @@ use Closure;
 use Laravel\Response;
 use Laravel\Container;
 
-class Delegate {
-
-	/**
-	 * The destination of the route delegate.
-	 *
-	 * @var string
-	 */
-	public $destination;
-
-	/**
-	 * Create a new route delegate instance.
-	 *
-	 * @param  string  $destination
-	 * @return void
-	 */
-	public function __construct($destination)
-	{
-		$this->destination = $destination;
-	}
-
-}
-
 class Caller {
 
 	/**
@@ -85,30 +63,14 @@ class Caller {
 			// If a route returns a Delegate, it also means the route is delegating the
 			// handling of the request to a controller method. So, we will pass the string
 			// to the route delegator, exploding on "@".
-			if ($response instanceof Delegate) $response = $this->delegate($route, $response->destination);
+			if ($response instanceof Delegate) return $this->delegate($route, $response->destination);
 
 			return $this->finish($route, $response);
 		}
 
 		// If we get to this point, no response was returned from the filters or the route.
 		// The 404 response will be returned to the browser instead of a blank screen.
-		return $this->finish($route, $this->container->resolve('laravel.response')->error('404'));
-	}
-
-	/**
-	 * Run the "before" filters for the route.
-	 *
-	 * If a before filter returns a value, that value will be considered the response to the
-	 * request and the route function / controller will not be used to handle the request.
-	 *
-	 * @param  Route  $route
-	 * @return mixed
-	 */
-	protected function before(Route $route)
-	{
-		$before = array_merge(array('before'), $route->filters('before'));
-
-		return $this->filter($before, array(), true);
+		return $this->finish($route, Response::error('404'));
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -139,12 +101,17 @@ class Caller {
 
 		$controller->container = $this->container;
 
-		// Again, as was the case with route closures, if the controller "before" method returns
+		// Again, as was the case with route closures, if the controller "before" filters return
 		// a response, it will be considered the response to the request and the controller method
 		// will not be used to handle the request to the application.
-		$response = $controller->before();
+		$response = $this->before($controller);
+
+		if (is_null($response))
+		{
+			$response = call_user_func_array(array($controller, $method), $route->parameters);
+		}
 
-		return (is_null($response)) ? call_user_func_array(array($controller, $method), $route->parameters) : $response;
+		return $this->finish($controller, $response);
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -197,29 +164,47 @@ class Caller {
 	 *
 	 * The route response will be converted to a Response instance and the "after" filters will be run.
 	 *
-	 * @param  Route        $route
+	 * @param  Destination  $route
 	 * @param  mixed        $response
 	 * @return Response
 	 */
-	protected function finish(Route $route, $response)
+	protected function finish(Destination $destination, $response)
 	{
 		if ( ! $response instanceof Response) $response = new Response($response);
 
-		$this->filter(array_merge($route->filters('after'), array('after')), array($response));
+		$this->filter(array_merge($destination->filters('after'), array('after')), array($response));
 
 		return $response;
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Run the "before" filters for the routing destination.
+	 *
+	 * If a before filter returns a value, that value will be considered the response to the
+	 * request and the route function / controller will not be used to handle the request.
+	 *
+	 * @param  Route  $route
+	 * @return mixed
+	 */
+	protected function before(Destination $destination)
+	{
+		$before = array_merge(array('before'), $destination->filters('before'));
+
+		return $this->filter($before, array(), true);
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Call a filter or set of filters.
 	 *
-	 * @param  array  $filters
+	 * @param  array|string  $filters
 	 * @param  array         $parameters
 	 * @param  bool          $override
 	 * @return mixed
 	 */
 	protected function filter($filters, $parameters = array(), $override = false)
 	{
+		if (is_string($filters)) $filters = explode('|', $filters);
+
 		foreach ((array) $filters as $filter)
 		{
 			// Parameters may be passed into routes by specifying the list of parameters after

laravel/routing/route.php

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 use Closure;
 use Laravel\Arr;
 
-class Route {
+class Route implements Destination {
 
 	/**
 	 * The route key, including request method and URI.
@@ -126,9 +126,7 @@ class Route {
 	{
 		if (is_array($this->callback) and isset($this->callback[$name]))
 		{
-			$filters = $this->callback[$name];
-
-			return (is_string($filters)) ? explode('|', $filters) : $filters;
+			return $this->callback[$name];
 		}
 
 		return array();

laravel/routing/router.php

@@ -2,6 +2,40 @@
 
 use Laravel\Request;
 
+interface Destination {
+
+	/**
+	 * Get an array of filter names defined for the destination.
+	 *
+	 * @param  string  $name
+	 * @return array
+	 */
+	public function filters($name);
+
+}
+
+class Delegate {
+
+	/**
+	 * The destination of the route delegate.
+	 *
+	 * @var string
+	 */
+	public $destination;
+
+	/**
+	 * Create a new route delegate instance.
+	 *
+	 * @param  string  $destination
+	 * @return void
+	 */
+	public function __construct($destination)
+	{
+		$this->destination = $destination;
+	}
+
+}
+
 class Router {
 
 	/**