Chapter 2. Routing

If you’re new to MVC web frameworks in general, you may at first expect that each request path would correlate with a particular file of code. This would be similar to the way static assets and preprocessed scripts are most often served. However, organizing our application code by request path typically leads to a sprawl of files and immense challenges to sensible refactoring. Merb refuses to let this happen by adhering to the MVC paradigm and separating code by its abstract purpose. The only hitch, of course, is that we now need an application router to guide incoming requests to the code meant to respond to it.

If this at first sounds a bit complicated, don’t worry. The Merb router is not only sophisticated enough to parse and direct requests based on complex conditions, it’s also easy to use and understand. In fact, if you’ve used the routers of other frameworks, chances are you’ll find Merb’s route definitions far cleaner and better organized than anything you’ve seen in the past.