Configuring URL rules

The Yii URL router is quite powerful and does two main tasks: it resolves URLs into internal routes and creates URLs from these routes. Router rules description is scattered over the official Yii guide and API docs. Let's try to understand how to configure application rules by example.

Getting ready

1. Create a fresh Yii application using yiic webapp as described in the official guide (http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/) and find your protected/config/main.php file. It should contain the following:

   // application components
   'components'=>array(
      …
     // uncomment the following to enable URLs in path-format
   'urlManager'=>array(
         'urlFormat'=>'path',
         'rules'=>array(
            '<controller:\w+>/<id:\d+>'=>'<controller>/view',
            '<controller:\w+>/<action:\w+>/<id:\d+>'=>'<controller>/<action>',
            '<controller:\w+>/<action:\w+>'=>'<controller>/<action>',
    ...