How to define route group name in laravel
Stefan Izdrail
Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29
Title: Efficiently Identify Route Group Names in Laravel for Enhanced Navigation Dynamics
Body:
Navigating through web applications can be challenging for users without proper navigation assistance. In Laravel, you've implemented two route groups - one for accounts and another for quotes. To improve the user experience, it's essential to identify the current route group name in order to activate the relevant menu items. This blog post will discuss how to achieve that with code examples and best practices.
Firstly, let's analyze your current Laravel application code:
```php
Route::group(['prefix' => 'accounts', 'as' => 'account.'], function() {
Route::get('/', 'AccountController@index')->name('index');
Route::get('connect', 'AccountController@connect')->name('connect');
});
Route::group(['prefix' => 'quotes', 'as' => 'quote.'], function() {
Route::get('/', 'QuoteController@index')->name('index');
Route::get('create', 'QuoteController@create')->name('create');
});
```
In this example, you have two route groups that use different namespaces: one for accounts and another for quotes. Both have their specific controllers for handling requests related to these groups. To display the active menu item, you can create a function that returns the current route's group name based on the active URL or request.
Here is an example of how to define this function:
```php
function getCurrentRouteGroup() {
$currentRoute = Route::getCurrentRoute();
if ($currentRoute && $currentRoute->getPrefix()) {
return str_replace(['http://', 'https://'], '', parse_url(Request::url(), PHP_URL_HOST)) . $currentRoute->getPrefix();
} else {
return '';
}
}
```
This function first gets the current route instance and checks if it has a prefix. If so, it removes the protocol from the currently requested host's URL (to avoid including HTTP or HTTPS) and appends the current route's prefix to get the group name. The else statement handles cases where no route is found or there isn't any prefix set.
Now let's integrate this function into your HTML navigation code:
```html
- // Add class 'active' when any route is open from account route group
Accounts
- // Add class 'active' when connect sub menu is clicked Connect Account
- // Add class 'active' when any route is open from quote route group
Quotes
- // Add class 'active' when create sub menu is clicked Create Quote