Controller and Routes in Laravel - laravel

Question

What basically is the difference between Controller and Routes. We can control our data using routes file, then why do we need controllers?
Like:
<?php
// app/routes.php
// route to process the ducks form
Route::post('ducks', function()
{
// process the form here
// create the validation rules ------------------------
$rules = array(
'name' => 'required', // just a normal required validation
'email' => 'required|email|unique:ducks', // required and must be unique in the ducks table
'password' => 'required',
'password_confirm' => 'required|same:password' // required and has to match the password field
);
// do the validation ----------------------------------
// validate against the inputs from our form
$validator = Validator::make(Input::all(), $rules);
// check if the validator failed -----------------------
if ($validator->fails()) {
// get the error messages from the validator
$messages = $validator->messages();
// redirect our user back to the form with the errors from the validator
return Redirect::to('ducks')
->withErrors($validator);
} else {
// validation successful ---------------------------
// our duck has passed all tests!
// let him enter the database
// create the data for our duck
$duck = new Duck;
$duck->name = Input::get('name');
$duck->email = Input::get('email');
$duck->password = Hash::make(Input::get('password'));
// save our duck
$duck->save();
// redirect ----------------------------------------
// redirect our user back to the form so they can do it all over again
return Redirect::to('ducks');
}
});
Well, this is not my code, I read it somewhere, But, here this person has used the validation in routes.php file, and in my project, I used the validation technique in a controller named UserController, what difference does it make?

Answer 1

Routes translate each incoming HTTP request to an action call, for example to a method of a controller, whereas controller is the place where business logic are written. There is nothing wrong in handling all in one file, but once your projects gets bigger it would be nightmare to manage such code. It's like responsibility, route, route the request to specific controller, controller process it, pass result to view. Mostly it's design pattern.

Answer 2

We can even have all the code in one huge file without using any classes at all, but we know that is not a good idea. The current best practice is to separate the code depending on responsibilities (single responsibility principle) to make it easier to other developers to read and understand the code. Often the next developer is yourself in some months, so having a clean structure don't only benefit others but also your sanity when going back to your old code.
The name router imply that the class routs data, in this case from an URI to a controller and the controller handle the business rules for that particular controller

Answer 3

Routes in laravel is a place where you define your application end points and controller is where you write your business logic.
I had the same problem understanding Laravel when I started to learn and to make it simple, I have created some project in MCV style please check this
https://github.com/jagadeshanh/understanding-laravel