Middleware

Middleware

Middleware (also called filters) run before and/or after a route's handler. Use them for authentication, logging, CORS, response shaping, etc.

Attach middleware to the most recently registered route with filter() (or its alias middleware()):

$router->get('/admin', 'AdminController@index')
    ->middleware(AuthMiddleware::class);

Position

The second argument controls when the middleware runs:

Constant	Runs
Router::BEFORE	before the handler
Router::AFTER	after the handler
Router::BOTH (default)	both

$router->get('/admin', 'AdminController@index')
    ->middleware(AuthMiddleware::class, Router::BEFORE);

Callable middleware

A middleware can be any callable. It receives the request, the response and the captured route arguments, and must return a PSR-7 response or null:

$router->get('/secret', $handler)->middleware(function ($request, $response, array $args) {
    if (! authenticated($request)) {
        return $response->withStatus(401); // non-2xx -> the handler is skipped
    }
    return $response; // continue
}, Router::BEFORE);

Class middleware

Class middleware extends InitPHP\Router\Middleware and implements before() and after():

use InitPHP\Router\Middleware;
use Psr\Http\Message\{RequestInterface, ResponseInterface};

class AuthMiddleware extends Middleware
{
    public function before(RequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response, array $arguments = []): ?ResponseInterface
    {
        if (! authenticated($request)) {
            return $response->withStatus(401);
        }
        return $response;
    }

    public function after(RequestInterface $request, ResponseInterface $response, array $arguments = []): ?ResponseInterface
    {
        return $response->withHeader('X-Frame-Options', 'DENY');
    }
}

Reference a class by FQCN, or by short name with a configured middleware namespace/path:

$router = new Router($request, $response, [
    'namespaces' => ['middleware' => 'App\\Middleware'],
    'paths'      => ['middleware' => __DIR__ . '/app/Middleware'],
]);

$router->get('/admin', 'AdminController@index')->middleware('AuthMiddleware');

A class middleware is instantiated once and reused, and its own dependencies are resolved like any other class (see Dependency Injection).

Return values & halting

Every middleware (callable or class) must return:

• a PSR-7 response — it replaces the working response. If its status is not in the 2xx range, the pipeline halts and that response is returned (the handler and remaining middleware do not run); or
• null — the pipeline halts and the current response is returned as-is.

Returning anything else throws RouterException.

In 1.x, returning null called exit(). In 2.0 it halts the pipeline cleanly and returns the current response — see Upgrading 1.x → 2.0.

Controller middlewares

A controller may declare middleware via a public $middlewares property. Entries can be global (applied to every action), keyed before/after, or scoped to a specific method:

class AdminController
{
    public array $middlewares = [
        AuthMiddleware::class,              // before & after, every action
        'before' => [LogMiddleware::class], // before, every action
        'index'  => [                       // only the index() action
            'before' => [RateLimitMiddleware::class],
        ],
    ];

    public function index() { /* ... */ }
}

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