Using regular expressions in URL rules

One of the hidden features of the Yii URL router is that you can use regular expressions that are pretty powerful when it comes to strings handling.

Getting ready

1. Create a fresh Yii application using yiic webapp as described in the official 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>',
         ),
      ),

2. Delete everything from rules as we are going to start from scratch.

3. In your protected/controllers directory, create PostController.php with...