Custom Routes not working - 404 not found - laravel

Question

I'm trying to create a custom route. The must be in this format: http://localhost:8000/home-back-to-school but instead I get a 404 not found error. http://localhost:8000/posts/home-back-to-school works, but that's not what I'm trying to get working.
My routes on web.php are defined as: Route::resource('posts',PostsController::class);
I modified the Route Service Provider by adding the code below:
parent::boot();
Route::bind('post',function($slug){
return Post::published()->where('slug',$slug)->first();
});
The published scope is defined in the Post Model file(Post.php) as:
public function scopePublished()
{
return $this->where('published_at','<=',today())->orderBy('published_at', 'desc');
}
I've done previously with laravel 5.x, now struggling with laravel 8.x
Link to the Documentation: Laravel 8 Documentation

Answer 1

You should define a custom route since you don't want to use the resourceful route for this method.
In your web.php
// Keep all your resource routes except the 'show' route since you want to customize it
Route::resource('posts', PostsController::class)->except(['show']);
// Define a custom route for the show controller method
Route::get('{slug}', PostsController::class)->name('posts.show');
In your PostController:
public function show(Post $post)
{
return view('posts.show', compact('post'));
}
In your Post model:
// Tell Laravel your model key isn't the default ID anymore since you want to use the slug
public function getRouteKeyName()
{
return 'slug';
}
You may have to fix your other Post routes to make them work with this change since you are now using $post->slug instead of $post->id as the model key.
Read more about customizing the model key:
https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/routing#customizing-the-default-key-name
You should also remove the code you have in the boot method and use the controller instead.
Finally, make sure your post slug is always unique for obvious reason.
Note:
You may run into problems if your other routes are not related to the Post model.
Imagine if you have a route called example.com/contact-us. Laravel has no way to "guess" if this route should be sent to the PostController or the ContactController. contact-us could be a Post slug or it could be a static route to your contact page. That's why it's generally a good idea to start your urls with the model name. In your case, it would be a good idea for your Post route to start with "/posts/" like this: http://example.com/posts/your-post-slug. Otherwise you may run into all sorts unexpected routing issues.
Don't fight the framework: Always follow best practices and naming conventions when you can.