A simple routing function for jQuery history

_init-routes.js

// Use it with jQuery history: http://tkyk.github.com/jquery-history-plugin/
// Hashes should begin with #!/ (see hash.slice(2) below)
(function($) {
$.history.initRoutes = function (routes) {
  $(function() {
    $.history.init(function(hash) {
      hash = hash.slice(2);
      var routeFound = false;
      for (var rpath in routes) {
        if (routes.hasOwnProperty(rpath)) {
          var re = new RegExp(rpath);
          var matched = hash.match(re);
          if (matched) {
            routes[rpath](matched.slice(1)); // Pass the matched result
            routeFound = true;
            break;
          }
        }
      }
      
      // No route found
      if (!routeFound && routes['^404$']) routes['^404$']();
      
    }, { unescape: "/" });
  });
};
})(jQuery);

examples.js

var routes = {};

// Do something for #!/
routes['^$'] = function() {
  loadHome();
};

// Captures #!/article_by_name/my-article
routes['^article_by_name\\/([a-z0-9\-]+)$'] = function(args) {
  loadArticleByName(args[0]);
};

// Captures #!/article_by_id_with_name/11-my-article
routes['^article_by_id_with_name\\/([0-9]+)\-[a-z0-9\-]*$'] = function(args) {
  loadArticleByIdWithName(args[0]);
};

// Captures #!/category/12-my-category/page/2
routes['^category\\/(([0-9]+)[a-z0-9\-]*)/page/([0-9]+)$'] = function(args) {
  loadCategoryPage(args[0], args[1]);
};

// No route found
routes['^404$'] = function() {
  loadHome();
}

initRoutes(routes);