Joomla JRoute requiring Itemid, but providing it always is not friendly

Question

I can see all over the internet people are talking over this. While using JRoute::_($URL) we are forced to calculate the Itemid first and then append it to the input URL like:

JRoute::_('index.php?option=com_abc&view=xyz&id=32'.'&Itemid='.$itemid);

However, it is always desirable to calculate the Itemid automatically from within the Joomla core router from the given URL.

Since Joomla 1.5 through 3.2 today, the

JRouterSite::_buildSefRoute or the latest JRouterSite::buildSefRoute

has not changed significantly.

I can see in the codes at /libraries/cms/router/site.php file that to build the desired format sef URL it is mandatory to include Itemid=XXX in the passed URL. Otherwise

JRoute::_('index.php?option=com_abc&view=xyz&id=32');

will generate a URL something similar to

`/component/abc/?view=xyz&id=32` 

unlike the desired

/our-component/?id=32

where our-component is the menu alias for the menu item pointing to

index.php?option=com_abc&view=xyz

I know that the later half ?view=xyz&id=32 can be handled by using custom router.php file per component. But the component base URL /component/abc is out of scope for that custom router.php

Please somebody advise that am I right at this thought or I am missing something big. Also advise me for how to overcome this issue.

Answer 1

The /component/abc is generated by the Joomla routing. Your component router.php will take care of the parameters which the component handles, so your /our-component/?id=32 may be translated into /our-component/my-id32-alias. It's not desirable that any component can tweek the basic routing on which all other components are based, and that's why you only can make-up part of the URL using router.php

Maybe you can investigate how to augment the router using a system plugin, but I think it is not what you are looking for.

http://docs.joomla.org/J2.5:Creating_a_System_Plugin_to_augment_JRouter

I've read it many times, but I find it hard to understand.