This document summarizes routing in Drupal 7 and 8. In Drupal 7, routing is based on paths and tied to menu links. The menu_rebuild() function populates the menu router table. Hooks like hook_menu() and hook_menu_alter() are used. In Drupal 8, routing uses YAML configuration files and dynamic routes can be added via events. Routing integrates with Symfony via a router listener. The document also outlines REST support in Drupal 8 via normalization, authentication, and resource plugins.

1. Drupal 7 routing
● based on path only (menu_get_item($path))
● tied up with menu links (tables menu_router,
menu_links)

2. menu_rebuild()
● This function will clear and populate the
{menu_router} table, add entries to {menu_links}
for new router items, and then remove stale
items from {menu_links}. If called from
update.php or install.php, it will also schedule a
call to itself on the first real page load from
menu_execute_active_handler(), because the
maintenance page environment is different and
leaves stale data in the menu tables.

3. Drupal 7 routing
● hook_menu()

4. Drupal 7 routing
● hook_menu_alter()

5. Drupal 8 routing
● mymodule.routing.yml
●
●
●
{router} database table, route_set =
<modulename>

6. Dynamic routes
● Subscriber reacting on
RoutingEvents::DYNAMIC event
●
●
●
●
●
●
{router} table, route_set = dynamic_routes

7. Drupal 8 meets Symfony routing
● RouterListener subscriber (core.services.yml)
● RouterListener::onKernelRequest() sets
attributes to request object using matcher

8. Routing
● RouterListener::onKernelRequest()

9. Routing ChainRouter

10. router.dynamic internals
● RouteProvider – fetch all records from {router}
table filtering by pattern_outline,
● NestedMatcher:
– MimeTypeMatcher
– UrlMatcher:
● prefix
● regex (example #^/node$#s)
● host regex
● http method
● http scheme (http or https)

11. legacy_router internals
● NullGenerator
● LegacyUrlMatcher
– menu_get_item($path)
– Convert it to Route
● _controller is callback function name
● hook_menu 'file' got included

12. REST in core
● New Entity API with field metadata
● REST API support can be enabled for any
entity known to the system
● Access control on the entity level
● Access control on the field level

13. Modules
● Serialization
● REST
● HAL

14. Retrieve a node (decoded)

15. Resource plugin
● DrupalmodulenamePluginrestresource
● Annotation with id and description
● Each http method as class method (get, post,
delete, patch ...)

16. Resource plugin

17. Serialization

18. Normalizers
● ImageItemNormalizer
● EntityReferenceNormalizer
● FieldItemNormalizer
● FieldNormalizer
● EntityNormalizer

19. Serialization

20. CSRF protection
● Each non-safe REST call (not GET, HEAD,
OPTIONS, TRACE methods) should be done
with 'X-CSRF-Token' header with token.

21. Services in Drupal 8
● Own plugin (extends Resource from REST)
● Each method as own route (not tied with http
method names)
● Use annotations to describe your routes

22. Services example

23. Authentication (in progress)
● https://drupal.org/node/1890878
● No more dependent on Cookie Session
● Authentication Providers
● Multiple authentication providers – 400 Bad
Request
● Access check if authenticaion provider allowed

24. Thanks
● Larry Garfield @Crell
● Lin Clark @linclark
● Klaus Purer @_klausi_
● WSCCI team

25. Links
● https://groups.drupal.org/wscci
● https://portland2013.drupal.org/session/rest-
and-serialization-drupal-8