plugin_route.php

<?php

/**
 * PluginRoute class.
 * 
 * Route class for plugins that allows you to clean up urls for plugins
 * without tons of calls to Router::connect() to shorten controller names in urls.
 */
class PluginRoute extends CakeRoute
{
	/**
	 * match function.
	 * 
	 * - Replaces underscores with dashes in action
	 * - Shortens controller names in urls.
	 *
	 * @access public
	 * @param array $url
	 * @return mixed
	 */
	public function match($url) {
		if(empty($url['plugin'])) {
			return parent::match($url);
		}
		
		# Ignore controller with the same name as plugin.
		if(!self::isDefault($url['controller'], $url['plugin'])) {
			$cases = array(
				Inflector::singularize($url['plugin']) . '_',
				Inflector::pluralize($url['plugin']) . '_',
			);
			$url['controller'] = str_replace($cases, '', $url['controller']);
			
			# replace underscores with dashes (not allowed in function)
			$url['action'] = str_replace('_', '-', $url['action']);
		}
		return parent::match($url);
	}
	
	
	/**
	 * Parses plugin routes.
	 * Makes sure that incoming urls match controller names in the plugin
	 * by adding the plugin name as a prefix.
	 */
	public function parse($url) {
		$params = parent::parse($url);
		if(empty($params)) { return false; }
		
		if(!self::isDefault($params['controller'], $params['plugin']) && !self::hasPrefix($params['controller'], $params['plugin'])) {
			$params['controller'] = $params['plugin'] . '_' . $params['controller'];
			# Replace dashes with underscores to make a legitimate function.
			$params['action'] = str_replace('-', '_', $params['action']);
		}
		return $params;
	}
	
	/**
	 * Checks to see if a controller has the plugin name as a prefix.
	 */
	private static function hasPrefix($controller, $plugin)
	{
		return (boolean) preg_match('/^'.$plugin.'_/', $controller);
	}
	
	/**
	 * Checks to see if the controller value equals plugin name (both singular and plural versions)
	 */
	private static function isDefault($controller, $plugin) {
		if($controller == Inflector::singularize($plugin) || $controller == Inflector::pluralize($plugin)) {
			return true;
		}
		return false;
	}
	
}

routes.php

<?php

App::import('Lib', array('routes/PluginRoute'));

Router::connect('/pluginname/:controller/:action/*', array('plugin' => 'pluginname'), array('routeClass' => 'PluginRoute'));
Router::connect('/pluginname/:controller', array('plugin' => 'pluginname', 'action' => 'index'), array('routeClass' => 'PluginRoute'));

I'm sure this needs more testing, I haven't extensively tested the match method yet.