Compared to about 10 years ago I have noted a shift towards frameworks using the style of routing that decouples the URL path from the filesystem. This is typically accomplished with the help of a front-controller pattern.

Namely, when before, URL path was mapped directly to the file system and therefore reflected exact files and folders on disk, nowadays, the actual URL paths are programmed to be directed to specific classes via configuration, and as such, no longer reflect the file system folder and file structure.

**Question**

How and why did this become commonplace? How and why was it decided that it's "better" to the point where once-commonplace direct-to-file approach was effectively abandoned?

**Other Answers**

There is a similar answer here that goes a bit into the concept of route and some benefits and drawbacks: *[With PHP frameworks, why is the "route" concept used?](https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/122190/with-php-frameworks-why-is-the-route-concept-used)*

But it does not address historical change aspects, or how or why this change gradually happened, to where any new projects nowadays are pretty much using this new routing style pattern and direct-to-file is outdated or abandoned.

Also, most of those benefits and drawbacks mentioned, do not appear to be significant enough to warrant such a global change. The only benefit that I can see driving this change perhaps is hiding the file/folder system from end-user, and also lack of `?param=value&param2=value`, which makes URLs look a tad cleaner. But were those the sole reason for the change? And if yes, why were *those* reasons behind it?

**Examples:**

I am most familiar with PHP frameworks and many popular modern frameworks use this decoupled routing approach. To make it work you set up [URL rewriting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewrite_engine) in Apache or similar web server, to where web application functionality is typically no longer triggered via a direct-to-file URL path.

> 
> Zend Expressive
> 
> 
> <https://docs.zendframework.com/zend-expressive/features/router/aura/>   
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> <https://docs.zendframework.com/zend-expressive/features/router/fast-route/>   
> 
> <https://docs.zendframework.com/zend-expressive/features/router/zf2/>
> 
> 
> Zend Framework
> 
> 
> <https://docs.zendframework.com/zend-mvc/routing/>
> 
> 
> Laravel
> 
> 
> <https://laravel.com/docs/5.5/routing>
> 
> 
> CakePHP
> 
> 
> <https://book.cakephp.org/3.0/en/development/routing.html>
> 
> 
>