README

URI Mapper is a lightweight CLI tool that generates a named URI catalog from a filesystem structure.

It is designed to help developers reference important entry-point URIs in a stable, explicit, and refactor-friendly way — without acting as a router or imposing architectural decisions.

This tool does not handle HTTP dispatching, request matching, or middleware.
It only maps filesystem paths to named URIs and generates a small helper class for convenience.

Why URI Mapper?

In many projects, URIs are managed manually — and that is often the right choice.

However, some URIs are:

• referenced frequently,
• shared across the application,
• or expensive to refactor when paths change.

URI Mapper helps in these cases by providing:

• stable identifiers for key URIs,
• safe refactoring through aliases,
• and a small helper API to build paths consistently.

It is opt-in by design:
you decide how much or how little you want it to map.

Features

• Stable URI IDs via @route annotations

• Automatic aliases for backward compatibility

• Index-only mode for clean, folder-based mappings (--index)

• Optional .php preservation in generated URIs (--php)

• Explicit URI composition via relative paths

• Zero runtime dependencies

• No routing, no dispatching, no framework coupling

Installation

composer require eril/uri-mapper

Basic Usage

Run the mapper against a directory containing your route files:

# vendor/bin/uri-mapper <path> [options]

vendor/bin/uri-mapper ./routes

This will generate a Uri.php helper class containing named URI constants.

Filesystem Mapping

Given the following structure:

routes/
├── index.php
├── services/
│   └── index.php
├── admin/
│   ├── index.php
│   └── users.php

The generated class will expose named URIs such as:

Uri::home();      // /
Uri::services();  // /services/
Uri::admin();     // /admin/

Named Routes (@route)

You can define a stable URI identifier using an annotation at the top of a PHP file:

<?php
// @route dashboard

?>

ou

<!-- @route dashboard  --->
<?php 

?>

This decouples the URI name from the filesystem path.

If the path changes later, the identifier remains valid.

Aliases and Backward Compatibility

When a @route annotation is present, the automatically generated name becomes an alias.

Example:

/login/index.php   // @route signin

Allows:

Uri::signin(); // preferred
Uri::login();  // alias, still works

This makes refactoring safe and explicit.

Index-Only Mode (--index)

By default, all PHP files are considered.

To generate only folder-level URIs, use:

vendor/bin/uri-mapper ./routes --index

This produces a cleaner API focused on entry points:

Uri::home('services');   // /services/
Uri::admin('users');    // /admin/users/

Without generating leaf routes like Uri::adminUsers().

Preserving .php in URIs (--php)

By default, generated URIs do not include .php.

To preserve it:

vendor/bin/uri-mapper ./routes --php

Explicit URI Composition (Relative Paths)

The generated Uri helper allows composing URIs explicitly using relative paths.

This is especially useful when using --index and building links in templates.

Rule

If the first argument starts with /, it is treated as a path relative to the base URI.

Examples

Uri::admin('/users');
// /admin/users

With parameters:

Uri::admin('/users/{id}', ['id' => 1]);
// /admin/users/1

Query string:

Uri::admin('/users', ['page' => 2]);
// /admin/users?page=2

This mechanism performs simple string substitution only. It does not define routes, validate parameters, or perform dispatching.

Output Modes

Dry Run

vendor/bin/uri-mapper ./routes --dry-run

Generates the catalog without writing files.

JSON Export

vendor/bin/uri-mapper ./routes --json

Outputs the URI map as JSON instead of generating a class.

Generated Helper Class

The generated Uri class provides:

Uri::home();
Uri::admin('users');
Uri::services(['page' => 2]);

As well as request helpers:

Uri::uri();   // current request URI
Uri::url();   // full URL
Uri::param(); // GET parameters

Design Philosophy

URI Mapper is intentionally minimal.

• It does not replace routers.
• It does not enforce patterns.
• It does not hide behavior.

It exists solely to make important URIs explicit, stable, and easy to reference.

Use it where it helps — ignore it where it doesn’t.

License

MIT © Eril TS Carvalho