# Routers > Resource routing allows you to quickly declare all of the common routes for a given resourceful controller. Instead of declaring separate routes for your index... a resourceful route declares them in a single line of code. > > — [Ruby on Rails Documentation][cite] Some Web frameworks such as Rails provide functionality for automatically determining how the URLs for an application should be mapped to the logic that deals with handling incoming requests. REST framework adds support for automatic URL routing to Django, and provides you with a simple, quick and consistent way of wiring your view logic to a set of URLs. ## Usage Here's an example of a simple URL conf, that uses `DefaultRouter`. router = routers.SimpleRouter() router.register(r'users', UserViewSet) router.register(r'accounts', AccountViewSet) urlpatterns = router.urls There are two mandatory arguments to the `register()` method: * `prefix` - The URL prefix to use for this set of routes. * `viewset` - The viewset class. Optionally, you may also specify an additional argument: * `base_name` - The base to use for the URL names that are created. If unset the basename will be automatically generated based on the `model` or `queryset` attribute on the viewset, if it has one. Note that if the viewset does not include a `model` or `queryset` attribute then you must set `base_name` when registering the viewset. The example above would generate the following URL patterns: * URL pattern: `^users/$` Name: `'user-list'` * URL pattern: `^users/{pk}/$` Name: `'user-detail'` * URL pattern: `^accounts/$` Name: `'account-list'` * URL pattern: `^accounts/{pk}/$` Name: `'account-detail'` ### Extra link and actions Any methods on the viewset decorated with `@link` or `@action` will also be routed. For example, a given method like this on the `UserViewSet` class: @action(permission_classes=[IsAdminOrIsSelf]) def set_password(self, request, pk=None): ... The following URL pattern would additionally be generated: * URL pattern: `^users/{pk}/set_password/$` Name: `'user-set-password'` # API Guide ## SimpleRouter This router includes routes for the standard set of `list`, `create`, `retrieve`, `update`, `partial_update` and `destroy` actions. The viewset can also mark additional methods to be routed, using the `@link` or `@action` decorators.

URL Style	HTTP Method	Action	URL Name
{prefix}/	GET	list	{basename}-list
	POST	create
{prefix}/{lookup}/	GET	retrieve	{basename}-detail
	PUT	update
	PATCH	partial_update
	DELETE	destroy
{prefix}/{lookup}/{methodname}/	GET	@link decorated method	{basename}-{methodname}
	POST	@action decorated method

By default the URLs created by `SimpleRouter` are appending with a trailing slash. This behavior can be modified by setting the `trailing_slash` argument to `False` when instantiating the router. For example: router = SimpleRouter(trailing_slash=False) Trailing slashes are conventional in Django, but are not used by default in some other frameworks such as Rails. Which style you choose to use is largely a matter of preference, although some javascript frameworks may expect a particular routing style. ## DefaultRouter This router is similar to `SimpleRouter` as above, but additionally includes a default API root view, that returns a response containing hyperlinks to all the list views. It also generates routes for optional `.json` style format suffixes.

URL Style	HTTP Method	Action	URL Name
[.format]	GET	automatically generated root view	api-root
{prefix}/[.format]	GET	list	{basename}-list
	POST	create
{prefix}/{lookup}/[.format]	GET	retrieve	{basename}-detail
	PUT	update
	PATCH	partial_update
	DELETE	destroy
{prefix}/{lookup}/{methodname}/[.format]	GET	@link decorated method	{basename}-{methodname}
	POST	@action decorated method

As with `SimpleRouter` the trailing slashs on the URL routes can be removed by setting the `trailing_slash` argument to `False` when instantiating the router. router = DefaultRouter(trailing_slash=False) # Custom Routers Implementing a custom router isn't something you'd need to do very often, but it can be useful if you have specific requirements about how the your URLs for your API are strutured. Doing so allows you to encapsulate the URL structure in a reusable way that ensures you don't have to write your URL patterns explicitly for each new view. The simplest way to implement a custom router is to subclass one of the existing router classes. The `.routes` attribute is used to template the URL patterns that will be mapped to each viewset. The `.routes` attribute is a list of `Route` named tuples. The arguments to the `Route` named tuple are: * `url`: The URL to be routed. There are format arguments available, defined in `SimpleRouter.get_urls`: * `prefix` - The URL prefix to use for this set of routes. * `lookup` - The lookup field used to match against a single instance. * `trailing_slash` - the value of `.trailing_slash`. * `mapping`: Mapping of HTTP method names to the object's methods * `name`: The name of the URL as used in `reverse` calls. There are format arguments available, defined in `SimpleRouter.get_urls`: * `basename` - The base to use for the URL names that are created. * `initkwargs`: Any additional arguments to the view. * `suffix` - reserved for identifying the viewset type, used when generating the breadcrumb links, e.g. `AccountViewSet` becomes `Account List` when `suffix='List'`. ## Example The following example will only route to the `list` and `retrieve` actions, and does not use the trailing slash convention. class ReadOnlyRouter(SimpleRouter): """ A router for read-only APIs, which doesn't use trailing suffixes. """ routes = [ Route(url=r'^{prefix}$', mapping={'get': 'list'}, name='{basename}-list', initkwargs={}), Route(url=r'^{prefix}/{lookup}$', mapping={'get': 'retrieve'}, name='{basename}-detail', initkwargs={}) ] The `SimpleRouter` class provides another example of setting the `.routes` attribute. ## Advanced custom routers If you want to provide totally custom behavior, you can override `BaseRouter` and override the `get_urls(self)` method. The method should insect the registered viewsets and return a list of URL patterns. The registered prefix, viewset and basename tuples may be inspected by accessing the `self.registry` attribute. You may also want to override the `get_default_base_name(self, viewset)` method, or else always explicitly set the `base_name` argument when registering your viewsets with the router. [cite]: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/routing.html