Route Groups And Middleware

Last modified on: September 3, 2025

<h1 data-start="153" data-end="195">Laravel Route Groups and Middleware</h1>
<p data-start="197" data-end="313">Laravel provides <strong data-start="214" data-end="230">Route Groups</strong> and <strong data-start="235" data-end="249">Middleware</strong> to make your routes more organized, maintainable, and secure.</p>
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<h2 data-start="320" data-end="343">🔹 1. Route Groups</h2>
<p data-start="345" data-end="513">Route groups let you apply <strong data-start="372" data-end="391">common settings</strong> (like prefix, middleware, namespace) to multiple routes. Instead of repeating, you wrap them inside a <code data-start="494" data-end="510">Route::group()</code>.</p>
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<h3 data-start="520" data-end="554">✅ Example: Basic Route Group</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::group(['prefix' =&gt; 'admin'], function () {
    Route::get('/dashboard', function () {
        return "Admin Dashboard";
    });

Route::get('/users', function () {
        return "Admin Users";
    });
});</code></pre>
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<p data-start="824" data-end="915">✅ Visiting <code data-start="835" data-end="853">/admin/dashboard</code> &rarr; Admin Dashboard<br data-start="871" data-end="874" />✅ Visiting <code data-start="885" data-end="899">/admin/users</code> &rarr; Admin Users</p>
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<h3 data-start="922" data-end="964">✅ Example: Middleware in Route Group</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>Route::group(['middleware' =&gt; 'auth'], function () {
    Route::get('/profile', function () {
        return "User Profile";
    });

Route::get('/settings', function () {
        return "User Settings";
    });
});</code></pre>
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<p data-start="1198" data-end="1271">✅ Both <code data-start="1205" data-end="1215">/profile</code> and <code data-start="1220" data-end="1231">/settings</code> will require the <strong data-start="1249" data-end="1257">auth</strong> middleware.</p>
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<h3 data-start="1278" data-end="1324">✅ Example: Combining Prefix + Middleware</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>Route::group(['prefix' =&gt; 'admin', 'middleware' =&gt; 'auth'], function () {
    Route::get('/dashboard', [AdminController::class, 'dashboard']);
    Route::get('/reports', [AdminController::class, 'reports']);
});</code></pre>
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<p data-start="1550" data-end="1617">✅ All admin routes require authentication &amp; have <code data-start="1599" data-end="1607">/admin</code> prefix.</p>
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<h3 data-start="1624" data-end="1679">✅ Example: Namespace in Route Groups (Laravel 8&ndash;)</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>use App\Http\Controllers\AdminController;

Route::group(['prefix' =&gt; 'admin'], function () {
    Route::get('/dashboard', [AdminController::class, 'dashboard']);
});</code></pre>
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<h2 data-start="1864" data-end="1896">🔹 2. Middleware in Laravel</h2>
<p data-start="1898" data-end="1973"><strong data-start="1898" data-end="1912">Middleware</strong> acts like a filter before or after a request is processed.</p>
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<p data-start="1977" data-end="2010">Check if user is authenticated.</p>
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<p data-start="2013" data-end="2034">Verify CSRF tokens.</p>
</li>
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<p data-start="2037" data-end="2068">Redirect based on user roles.</p>
</li>
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<p data-start="2071" data-end="2086">Log requests.</p>
</li>
</ul>
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<h3 data-start="2093" data-end="2135">✅ Example: Using Middleware on Route</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>Route::get('/dashboard', function () {
    return "Dashboard Page";
})-&gt;middleware('auth');</code></pre>
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<p data-start="2241" data-end="2291">➡️ Only logged-in users can access <code data-start="2276" data-end="2288">/dashboard</code>.</p>
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<h3 data-start="2298" data-end="2339">✅ Example: Middleware in Controller</h3>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>class AdminController extends Controller
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this-&gt;middleware('auth');
    }

public function dashboard()
    {
        return "Admin Dashboard";
    }
}</code></pre>
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<h3 data-start="2563" data-end="2597">✅ Creating Custom Middleware</h3>
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<div class="bg-token-bg-elevated-secondary text-token-text-secondary flex items-center gap-4 rounded-sm px-2 font-sans text-xs">&nbsp;</div>
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<div class="overflow-y-auto p-4" dir="ltr"><code class="whitespace-pre! language-bash">php artisan make:middleware CheckRole
</code></div>
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<p data-start="2650" data-end="2701">➡️ Generates: <code data-start="2664" data-end="2699">app/Http/Middleware/CheckRole.php</code></p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class CheckRole
{
    public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next, $role)
    {
        if ($request-&gt;user()-&gt;role !== $role) {
            return redirect('/unauthorized');
        }
        return $next($request);
    }
}</code></pre>
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<p data-start="3025" data-end="3067">➡️ Register it in <code data-start="3043" data-end="3064">app/Http/Kernel.php</code>:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>protected $routeMiddleware = [
    'role' =&gt; \App\Http\Middleware\CheckRole::class,
];</code></pre>
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<p data-start="3168" data-end="3189">➡️ Use it in route:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>Route::get('/admin', function () {
    return "Admin Panel";
})-&gt;middleware('role:admin');</code></pre>
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<h2 data-start="3299" data-end="3328">🔹 3. Real-World Example</h2>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>Route::group(['prefix' =&gt; 'admin', 'middleware' =&gt; ['auth', 'role:admin']], function () {
    Route::get('/dashboard', [AdminController::class, 'dashboard']);
    Route::get('/users', [AdminController::class, 'manageUsers']);
});</code></pre>
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<p data-start="3572" data-end="3587">✅ All routes:</p>
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<p data-start="3590" data-end="3613">Start with <code data-start="3601" data-end="3611">/admin/*</code></p>
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<p data-start="3616" data-end="3640">Require authentication</p>
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<p data-start="3643" data-end="3665">Require <code data-start="3651" data-end="3658">admin</code> role</p>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-start="3672" data-end="3686">📌 Summary</h1>
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<p data-start="3690" data-end="3748"><strong data-start="3690" data-end="3706">Route Groups</strong> &rarr; Organize routes with shared settings.</p>
</li>
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<p data-start="3751" data-end="3815"><strong data-start="3751" data-end="3765">Middleware</strong> &rarr; Filter requests (auth, roles, CSRF, logging).</p>
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<li data-start="3816" data-end="3875">
<p data-start="3818" data-end="3875"><strong data-start="3818" data-end="3839">Custom Middleware</strong> &rarr; Build your own request filters.</p>
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</ul>
<p data-start="3877" data-end="3951">Together, they make applications <strong data-start="3910" data-end="3948">cleaner, more secure, and scalable</strong>.</p>

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