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1 ## Web Server Middleware for Dart | |
2 | |
3 ## Introduction | |
4 | |
5 **Shelf** makes it easy to create and compose **web servers** and **parts of web | |
6 servers**. How? | |
7 | |
8 * Expose a small set of simple types. | |
9 * Map server logic into a simple function: a single argument for the request, | |
10 the response is the return value. | |
11 * Trivially mix and match synchronous and asynchronous processing. | |
12 * Flexibliity to return a simple string or a byte stream with the same model. | |
13 | |
14 ## Example | |
15 | |
16 See `example/example_server.dart` | |
17 | |
18 ```dart | |
19 import 'package:shelf/shelf.dart' as shelf; | |
20 import 'package:shelf/shelf_io.dart' as io; | |
21 | |
22 void main() { | |
23 var handler = const shelf.Pipeline().addMiddleware(shelf.logRequests()) | |
24 .addHandler(_echoRequest); | |
25 | |
26 io.serve(handler, 'localhost', 8080).then((server) { | |
27 print('Serving at http://${server.address.host}:${server.port}'); | |
28 }); | |
29 } | |
30 | |
31 shelf.Response _echoRequest(shelf.Request request) { | |
32 return new shelf.Response.ok('Request for "${request.url}"'); | |
33 } | |
34 ``` | |
35 | |
36 ## Handlers and Middleware | |
37 | |
38 A [handler][] is any function that handles a [shelf.Request][] and returns a | |
39 [shelf.Response][]. It can either handle the request itself--for example, a | |
40 static file server that looks up the requested URI on the filesystem--or it can | |
41 do some processing and forward it to another handler--for example, a logger that | |
42 prints information about requests and responses to the command line. | |
43 | |
44 [handler]: http://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/shelf/latest/index.html#shelf/s
helf@id_Handler | |
45 | |
46 [shelf.Request]: http://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/shelf/latest/index.html#s
helf/shelf.Request | |
47 | |
48 [shelf.Response]: http://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/shelf/latest/index.html
#shelf/shelf.Response | |
49 | |
50 The latter kind of handler is called "[middleware][]", since it sits in the | |
51 middle of the server stack. Middleware can be thought of as a function that | |
52 takes a handler and wraps it in another handler to provide additional | |
53 functionality. A Shelf application is usually composed of many layers of | |
54 middleware with one or more handlers at the very center; the [shelf.Pipeline][] | |
55 class makes this sort of application easy to construct. | |
56 | |
57 [middleware]: http://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/shelf/latest/index.html#shel
f/shelf@id_Middleware | |
58 | |
59 [shelf.Pipeline]: http://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/shelf/latest/index.html
#shelf/shelf.Pipeline | |
60 | |
61 Some middleware can also take multiple handlers and call one or more of them for | |
62 each request. For example, a routing middleware might choose which handler to | |
63 call based on the request's URI or HTTP method, while a cascading middleware | |
64 might call each one in sequence until one returns a successful response. | |
65 | |
66 ## Adapters | |
67 | |
68 An adapter is any code that creates [shelf.Request][] objects, passes them to a | |
69 handler, and deals with the resulting [shelf.Response][]. For the most part, | |
70 adapters forward requests from and responses to an underlying HTTP server; | |
71 [shelf_io.serve][] is this sort of adapter. An adapter might also synthesize | |
72 HTTP requests within the browser using `window.location` and `window.history`, | |
73 or it might pipe requests directly from an HTTP client to a Shelf handler. | |
74 | |
75 [shelf_io.serve]: http://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/shelf/latest/index.html#
shelf/shelf-io@id_serve | |
76 | |
77 When implementing an adapter, some rules must be followed. The adapter must not | |
78 pass the `url` or `scriptName` parameters to [new shelf.Request][]; it should | |
79 only pass `requestedUri`. If it passes the `context` parameter, all keys must | |
80 begin with the adapter's package name followed by a period. If multiple headers | |
81 with the same name are received, the adapter must collapse them into a single | |
82 header separated by commas as per [RFC 2616 section 4.2][]. | |
83 | |
84 [new shelf.Request]: http://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/shelf/latest/index.ht
ml#shelf/shelf.Request@id_Request- | |
85 | |
86 [RFC 2616 section 4.2]: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec4.html | |
87 | |
88 An adapter must handle all errors from the handler, including the handler | |
89 returning a `null` response. It should print each error to the console if | |
90 possible, then act as though the handler returned a 500 response. The adapter | |
91 may include body data for the 500 response, but this body data must not include | |
92 information about the error that occurred. This ensures that unexpected errors | |
93 don't result in exposing internal information in production by default; if the | |
94 user wants to return detailed error descriptions, they should explicitly include | |
95 middleware to do so. | |
96 | |
97 An adapter should include information about itself in the Server header of the | |
98 response by default. If the handler returns a response with the Server header | |
99 set, that must take precedence over the adapter's default header. | |
100 | |
101 An adapter should include the Date header with the time the handler returns a | |
102 response. If the handler returns a response with the Date header set, that must | |
103 take precedence. | |
104 | |
105 An adapter should ensure that asynchronous errors thrown by the handler don't | |
106 cause the application to crash, even if they aren't reported by the future | |
107 chain. Specifically, these errors shouldn't be passed to the root zone's error | |
108 handler; however, if the adapter is run within another error zone, it should | |
109 allow these errors to be passed to that zone. The following function can be used | |
110 to capture only errors that would otherwise be top-leveled: | |
111 | |
112 ```dart | |
113 /// Run [callback] and capture any errors that would otherwise be top-leveled. | |
114 /// | |
115 /// If [this] is called in a non-root error zone, it will just run [callback] | |
116 /// and return the result. Otherwise, it will capture any errors using | |
117 /// [runZoned] and pass them to [onError]. | |
118 catchTopLevelErrors(callback(), void onError(error, StackTrace stackTrace)) { | |
119 if (Zone.current.inSameErrorZone(Zone.ROOT)) { | |
120 return runZoned(callback, onError: onError); | |
121 } else { | |
122 return callback(); | |
123 } | |
124 } | |
125 ``` | |
126 | |
127 ## Inspiration | |
128 | |
129 * [Connect](http://www.senchalabs.org/connect/) for NodeJS. | |
130 * Read [this great write-up](http://howtonode.org/connect-it) to understand | |
131 the overall philosophy of all of these models. | |
132 * [Rack](http://rack.github.io/) for Ruby. | |
133 * [WSGI](http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3333/) for Python. | |
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