Laravel routes prefix and ressources resulting in 404 not found - laravel

Question

I've this Laravel routing issue. I don't really understand why my route:list tells me that an {} empty is appended to the URL? I believe this is the reason why my calls returns 404 not found.
I'd like DepartmentController to be inside my grouped body as I need the ID for other purposes. If I move ressource outside the prefix/group this scenarie works, but the other dosen't. This is my preferred way of structuring my routes, but it troubles me that / dosen't just use the prefixed URL, but it for some reason append it with {}
What am I doing wrong?
Calling URL: /department/1/edit
Result: 404 Not Found
Routes:
Route::prefix( 'department/{department_id?}' )->group( function () {
Route::resource( '/', 'DepartmentController' );
}
php artisan route:list:
| | GET|HEAD | department/{department_id?}/{} | show | App\Http\Controllers\DepartmentController#show | web |
| | PUT|PATCH | department/{department_id?}/{} | update | App\Http\Controllers\DepartmentController#update | web |
| | DELETE | department/{department_id?}/{} | destroy | App\Http\Controllers\DepartmentController#destroy | web |
| | GET|HEAD | department/{department_id?}/{}/edit | edit | App\Http\Controllers\DepartmentController#edit | web |
| | GET|HEAD | department/{department_id?}/create | create | App\Http\Controllers\DepartmentController#create | web |
| | POST | department/{department_id?} | store | App\Http\Controllers\DepartmentController#store | web |
| | GET|HEAD | department/{department_id?} | index | App\Http\Controllers\DepartmentController#index | web |
Update:
If I make a custom route like this:
Route::get( 'customedit', 'DepartmentController#editasddas' );
and request the url: /department/1/editasddas. It works as it's suppose to, but there is actually a reason why I'm using the ressource: to keep the routes as clean as possible. The ressource-routes have been implemented for that reason aswell, and I just need to implement the basic CRUD operations. Is this a bug in Laravel, or is this basically not possible? - really strange I think. It's not that complex.

Answer 1

I think you have this issue because how Route::resource creates subroutes itself (automatically adding a resource parameter within URLs, the parameter being {} at the end).
Also, note you are currently generating a index route with a department parameter, and that's not really useful.
Best solution for me is to move out your parameter:
Route::prefix( 'department' )->group( function () {
Route::resource( '/', 'DepartmentController' );
});
In the other hand, the department_id parameter will not be facultative. And you will need to add the parameter within each other custom routes (but that's what Route::resource does with its own routes after all).
Second one is to keep your prefix and declare each route individually. But you will need to change the default route names because department.index and department.show will have the exact same methods (GET and HEAD) and URLs (department/{department_id}).
Route::prefix('department/{department_id}')->group(function() {
Route::match(['get', 'head'], '/', 'DepartmentController#index')->name('department.index');
Route::match(['get', 'head'], '/show', 'DepartmentController#show')->name('department.show');
/* Declare all the others. */
});

Answer 2

The Route::resource method alone will achieve what you're looking for:
Route::resource( 'department', 'DepartmentController' );
Check the docs on this here, https://laravel.com/docs/5.8/controllers#resource-controllers