A newer method to clean up resourceful routes

Most of my applications are built with resourceful routes. If something doesn't fit nicely into one of the pre-defined resourceful methods, I'll usually split it into a separate invokable controller.

I like the consistency of this approach, and it also means that my routes file is nice and tidy as well.

One place that I would occasionally have to split up a resourceful controller's routes is when a particular middleware only applied to some of the routes.

I couldn't just chain ->middleware(SomeMiddleware::class) to Route::resource() because it would apply to all the routes. I'd have to split it up just to apply a different set of middleware.

But not too long ago, during the Laravel 11 release cycle, a new middlewareFor method was introduced so you can selectively apply middleware to just some methods in a resourceful route:

Route::resource('addresses', AddressController::class)
    ->middlewareFor('destroy', SomeSpecialMiddleware::class);

Now I don't have to split out the destroy route, but I can still apply that special middleware to just that resourceful method.

If I have additional methods with their own middleware, I can chain those on as well.

You probably won't need this a lot, but it's very handy to know it's there when you do.

Here to help,

Joel

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