Object Oriented PHP Url Router

I just finished rewriting my Router class. Any input would be much appreciated.

The class routes URLs based on a site.com/class/method/param/param/etc syntax.

One thing I've done differently is created a mechanism for basic templates to be loaded directly without the need for a controller. I often find pages such as /about/ do not require additional methodology, and setting up really basic controllers just seems like a waste of time. Therefore, I have created a check for templates such as _about.php in the views folder, with the underscore denoting that it can be loaded directly.

The class also currently assumes an error class or template.

```
class Router{

public static function getPath($uri = null){
// set default uri
$uri = is_null($uri) ? $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] : $uri;

// remove possible query string
$uri = preg_replace('/\?(.*)/', '', $uri);

return explode('/',trim($uri,'/'));
}

public static function getQuery($uri = null){

// set default uri
$uri = is_null($uri) ? $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] : $uri;

// get query string
$query = substr($uri, strpos($uri,'?') + 1);

// parse into array
$q = array();
parse_str($query,$q);

return $q;
}

public static function follow($uri = null){

$path = self::getPath($uri);

// get controller and method, or set defaults of root and index
$controller = ($path[0] == "") ? 'root' : $path[0];
$method = ((count($path) > 1) && ($path[1] != "")) ? $path[1] : null;

// see if controller is a static page, only possible if no method specified
if(is_null($method) && file_exists(APPLICATION_DIR . '/views/_' . $controller . '.php')){
include APPLICATION_DIR . '/views/_' . $controller . '.php';
}
else if(file_exists(APPLICATION_DIR . '/controllers/' . $controller . '.php')){ // see if controller exists
// load controller

This is not OOP.

Observe how your class contains only static functions. There are no class properties. This can be written equivalently:

namespace Router;

function getPath($uri = null){
    // Same implementation (I have just cut it out for readability).
}

function getQuery($uri = null){
    // Same implementation.
}

function follow($uri = null){
    // Same implementation.
}

Usage from anywhere can be compared (First your code):

Router::getPath($uri);
Router::getQuery($uri);
Router::follow($uri);

Then the equivalent:

Router\getPath($uri);
Router\getQuery($uri);
Router\follow($uri);

Note how no object is required to be used (that is a good hint that its not OO).

The following question would be worth reading:

User class design

I have an answer to that question which covers in more detail some of the problems with using static in OOP.

StackExchange Code Review Q#11286, answer score: 7