CakePHP Username URL using Regex? - regex

Question

I found a comment here: http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/PHPdiddy/2006/10/06/custom-urls-from-the-site-root
That said:
Just change last line.
Router::connect('/',
array('controller' => 'members',
'action' => 'show'));
to
Router::connect('(?!admin|items|images)(.*)',
array('controller' => 'members', 'action' => 'show'));
Some people were able to get that to work... It didn't look quite right to me though so I tried the following, but still had no luck:
Router::connect('(?!/admin|/items|/images)(/.*)',
array('controller' => 'members','action' => 'show'));
In any case, the goal is to have a url like http://domainname/username , map to a users unique id. It works with /*, but I rather not use that method. Ideas?
Update to solution:
I used the selected answer below and added the following. It may be helpful to someone else.
$misc = array(*your misc webroot, admin route items here...*);
$notList = array_merge(Configure::listObjects('plugin'),Configure::listObjects('controller'));
$notListLowerCase = array();
foreach ($notList as $key=>$item):
$notListLowerCase[] = strtolower(preg_replace("/(.)([A-Z])/","\\1_\\2",$item));
endforeach;
$notList = array_merge($notList,$misc,$notListLowerCase);
$notList = implode('|', $notList);
Router::connect('/:username',
array(
'controller'=>'users',
'action'=>'view'
),
array(
'username' => '\b(?:(?!'.$notList.')\w)+\b'
)
);

Answer 1

Here ya go. You need to capture it as a param and then reference it in the regex. The username will be available in $this->params['username'] in the controller action.
Router::connect('/:username',
array(
'controller'=>'members',
'action'=>'show'
),
array(
'username' => '\b(?:(?!admin|items|images)\w)+\b'
)
);

Answer 2

$misc = array(*your misc webroot, admin route items here...*);
$notList = array_merge(App::objects('plugin'),str_replace('Controller','',App::objects('controller')));
$notListLowerCase = array();
foreach ($notList as $key=>$item):
$notListLowerCase[] = strtolower(preg_replace("/(.)([A-Z])/","\\1_\\2",$item));
endforeach;
$notList = array_merge($notList,$misc,$notListLowerCase);
$notList = implode('|', $notList);
Router::connect('/:username', array('controller' => 'members', 'action' => 'show'),array('pass'=>array('username'),'username'=>'\b(?:(?!'.$notList.')\w)+\b'));