Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/dom96/jester

A sinatra-like web framework for Nim.
https://github.com/dom96/jester

framework hacktoberfest http nim web

Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation

A sinatra-like web framework for Nim.

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
# 🃏 Jester 🃏



The sinatra-like web framework for Nim. Jester provides a DSL for quickly

creating web applications in Nim.



```nim

# example.nim

import htmlgen

import jester



routes:

  get "/":

    resp h1("Hello world")

```



Compile and run with:



```

  cd tests/example

  nim c -r example.nim

```



View at: [localhost:5000](http://localhost:5000)



Before deploying to production ensure you run your application behind a reverse proxy. This library is not yet hardened against HTTP security exploits so applications written in it should not be exposed to the public internet.



## Routes



```nim

routes:

  get "/":

    # do something here.

```



All routes must be inside a ``routes`` block.



Routes will be executed in the order that they are declared. So be careful when

halting.



The route path may contain a special pattern or just a static string. Special

patterns are almost identical to Sinatra's, the only real difference is the

use of ``@`` instead of the ``:``.



```nim

get "/hello/@name":

  # This matches "/hello/fred" and "/hello/bob".

  # In the route ``@"name"`` will be either "fred" or "bob".

  # This can of course match any value which does not contain '/'.

  resp "Hello " & @"name"

```



The patterns in Jester are currently a bit more limited, there is no

wildcard patterns.



You can use the '?' character to signify optional path parts.



```nim

get "/hello/@name?":

  # This will match what the previous code example matches but will also match

  # "/hello/".

  if @"name" == "":

    resp "No name received :("

  else:

    resp "Hello " & @"name"

```



In this case you might want to make the leading '/' optional too, you can do this

by changing the pattern to "/hello/?@name?". This is useful because Jester will

not match "/hello" if the leading '/' is not made optional.



### Regex



Regex can also be used as a route pattern. The subpattern captures will be

placed in ``request.matches`` when a route is matched. For example:



```nim

get re"^\/([0-9]{2})\.html$":

  resp request.matches[0]

```



This will match URLs of the form ``/15.html``. In this case

``request.matches[0]`` will be ``15``.



## Conditions



Jester supports conditions, however they are limited to a simple ``cond`` template.



```nim

routes:

  get "/@name":

    cond @"name" == "daniel"

    # ``cond`` will pass execution to the next matching route if @"name" is not

    # "daniel".

    resp "Correct, my name is daniel."



  get "/@name":

    # This will be the next route that is matched.

    resp "No, that's not my name."

```



## Return values



Route bodies all have an implicit ``request`` object. This object is documented

in jester.nim and documentation can be generated by executing ``nim doc jester.nim``.



Returning a response from a route should be done using one of the following

functions:



  * One of the ``resp`` functions.

  * By setting ``body``, ``headers`` and/or ``status`` and calling ``return``.

  * ``redirect`` function

  * ``attachment`` function



There might be more. Take a look at the documentation of jester.nim for more info.



## Manual routing



It is possible not to use the ``routes`` macro and to do the routing yourself.



You can do this by writing your own ``match`` procedure. Take a look at

[example2](tests/example2.nim) for an example on how to do this.



## Static files



By default Jester looks for static files in ``./public``. This can be overriden

using the ``setStaticDir`` function. Files will be served like so:



./public/css/style.css ``->`` http://example.com/css/style.css



**Note**: Jester will only serve files, that are readable by ``others``. On

Unix/Linux you can ensure this with ``chmod o+r ./public/css/style.css``.



## Cookies



Cookies can be set using the ``setCookie`` function.



```nim

get "/":

  # Set a cookie "test:value" and make it expire in 5 days.

  setCookie("test", @"value", daysForward(5))

```



They can then be accessed using the ``request.cookies`` procedure which returns

a ``Table[string, string]``.



## Request object



The request object holds all the information about the current request.

You can access it from a route using the ``request`` variable. It is defined as:



```nim

Request* = ref object

  params*: StringTableRef       ## Parameters from the pattern, but also the

                                ## query string.

  matches*: array[MaxSubpatterns, string] ## Matches if this is a regex

                                          ## pattern.

  body*: string                 ## Body of the request, only for POST.

                                ## You're probably looking for ``formData``

                                ## instead.

  headers*: StringTableRef      ## Headers received with the request.

                                ## Retrieving these is case insensitive.

  formData*: MultiData          ## Form data; only present for

                                ## multipart/form-data

  port*: int

  host*: string

  appName*: string              ## This is set by the user in ``run``, it is

                                ## overriden by the "SCRIPT_NAME" scgi

                                ## parameter.

  pathInfo*: string             ## This is ``.path`` without ``.appName``.

  secure*: bool

  path*: string                 ## Path of request.

  query*: string                ## Query string of request.

  cookies*: StringTableRef      ## Cookies from the browser.

  ip*: string                   ## IP address of the requesting client.

  reqMeth*: HttpMethod          ## Request method, eg. HttpGet, HttpPost

  settings*: Settings

```



## Examples



### Custom router



A custom router allows running your own initialization code and pass dynamic settings to Jester before starting the async loop.



```nim

import asyncdispatch, jester, os, strutils



router myrouter:

  get "/":

    resp "It's alive!"



proc main() =

  let port = paramStr(1).parseInt().Port

  let settings = newSettings(port=port)

  var jester = initJester(myrouter, settings=settings)

  jester.serve()



when isMainModule:

  main()

```



### Github service hooks



The code for this is pretty similar to the code for Sinatra given here: http://help.github.com/post-receive-hooks/



```nim

import jester, json



routes:

  post "/":

    var push = parseJson(@"payload")

    resp "I got some JSON: " & $push

```