= Roda
Roda is a routing tree web framework.
= Installation
$ gem install roda
== Resources
Website :: http://roda.jeremyevans.net
Source :: http://github.com/jeremyevans/roda
Bugs :: http://github.com/jeremyevans/roda/issues
Google Group :: http://groups.google.com/group/ruby-roda
IRC :: irc://chat.freenode.net/#roda
== Inspiration
Roda was inspired by {Sinatra}[http://www.sinatrarb.com] and {Cuba}[http://cuba.is],
two other Ruby web frameworks. It started out as a fork of Cuba, from which it borrows
the idea of using a routing tree (which Cuba in turn took from
{Rum}[https://github.com/chneukirchen/rum]). From Sinatra it takes the ideas that
route blocks should return the request bodies and that routes should be canonical.
It pilfers the idea for an extensible plugin system from the Ruby database library
{Sequel}[http://sequel.jeremyevans.net].
== Usage
Here's a simple application, showing how the routing tree works:
# cat config.ru
require "roda"
class App < Roda
use Rack::Session::Cookie, :secret => ENV['SECRET']
route do |r|
# GET / request
r.root do
r.redirect "/hello"
end
# /hello branch
r.on "hello" do
# GET /hello/world request
r.get "world" do
"Hello world!"
end
# /hello request
r.is do
# GET /hello request
r.get do
"Hello!"
end
# POST /hello request
r.post do
puts "Someone said hello!"
r.redirect
end
end
end
end
end
run App.app
Here's a breakdown of what is going on in the above block:
After requiring the library and subclassing Roda, the +use+ method
is called, which loads a rack middleware into the current
application.
The +route+ block is called whenever a new request comes in,
and it is yielded an instance of a subclass of Rack::Request
with some additional methods for matching routes. By
convention, this argument should be named +r+.
The primary way routes are matched in Roda is by calling
+r.on+, +r.is+, +r.root+, +r.get+, or +r.post+. These methods are
calling the routing methods, and each of them takes a block. The
block is referred to as a match block.
Each routing method takes each of the arguments (called matchers)
given and tries to match them to the current request. If it is
able to match all of the arguments, it yields to the match block,
otherwise the block is skipped and execution continues.
+r.on+ matches if all of the arguments match.
+r.is+ matches if all of the arguments match, and there are no
further entries in the path after matching.
+r.get+ when called without arguments matches any +GET+ request.
+r.get+ when called with any arguments matches only if the
current request is a +GET+ request and there are no further entries
in the path after matching.
+r.root+ only matches a +GET+ request where the current path is +/+.
If a routing method matches and control is yielded to the match
block, whenever the match block returns, Roda will return the
rack response array of status, headers, and body, to the caller.
If the match block returns a string and the response body hasn't
already been written to, the block return value will interpreted
as the body for the response. If none of the routing methods match
and the route block returns a string, it will be interpreted as the
body for the response.
+r.redirect+ immediately returns the response, allowing for
code such as r.redirect(path) if some_condition. If
called without arguments, it redirects to the current path if
the current request method is not +GET+.
The +.app+ at the end is an optimization, which you can leave
off, but which saves a few methods call for every response.
== The Routing Tree
Roda is called a routing tree web framework because the way most
sites are structured, routing takes the form of a tree based on the
URL structure of the site. In general, +r.on+ is used to split the
tree into different branches, and +r.is+ is finalizes the routing,
where the request is actually handled.
So a simple routing tree may look something like this:
r.on "a" do # /a branch
r.on "b" do # /a/b branch
r.is "c" do # /a/b/c request
r.get do end # GET /a/b/c request
r.post do end # POST /a/b/c request
end
r.get "d" do end # GET /a/b/d request
r.post "e" do end # POST /a/b/e request
end
end
It's also possible to handle the same requests, but structure the
routing tree by first branching on the request method:
r.get do # GET
r.on "a" do # GET /a branch
r.on "b" do # GET /a/b branch
r.is "c" do end # GET /a/b/c request
r.is "d" do end # GET /a/b/d request
end
end
end
r.post do # POST
r.on "a" do # POST /a branch
r.on "b" do # POST /a/b branch
r.is "c" do end # POST /a/b/c request
r.is "e" do end # POST /a/b/e request
end
end
end
This allows you to easily separate your +GET+ request handling from
your +POST+ request handling. If you only have a small number of
+POST+ request URLs and a large number of +GET+ request URLs, this
may make things easier.
However, in general routing first by the path and last by the
request method is likely to lead to simpler and DRYer code. This
is because at any point during the routing, you can act on the
request. For example, if all requests in the +/a+ branch need
need access permission +A+ and all requests in the +/a/b+ branch
need access permission +B+, you can easily handle this in the
routing tree:
r.on "a" do # /a branch
check_perm(:A)
r.on "b" do # /a/b branch
check_perm(:B)
r.is "c" do # /a/b/c request
r.get do end # GET /a/b/c request
r.post do end # POST /a/b/c request
end
r.get "d" do end # GET /a/b/d request
r.post "e" do end # POST /a/b/e request
end
end
Being able to operate on the request at any point during the
the routing is one of the major advantages of Roda compared
to other web frameworks that do not use a routing tree.
== Matchers
Other than +r.root+, the routing methods all take arguments called
matchers. If all of the matchers match, the routing method yields to
the match block. Here's an example showcasing how different
matchers work:
class App < Roda
route do |r|
# only GET requests
r.get do
# /
r.root do
"Home"
end
# /about
r.is "about" do
"About"
end
# /styles/basic.css
r.is "styles", :extension => "css" do |file|
"Filename: #{file}" #=> "Filename: basic"
end
# /post/2011/02/16/hello
r.is "post/:y/:m/:d/:slug" do |y, m, d, slug|
"#{y}-#{m}-#{d} #{slug}" #=> "2011-02-16 hello"
end
# /username/foobar
r.on "username/:username" do |username|
user = User.find_by_username(username) # username == "foobar"
# /username/foobar/posts
r.is "posts" do
# You can access user here, because the blocks are closures.
"Total Posts: #{user.posts.size}" #=> "Total Posts: 6"
end
# /username/foobar/following
r.is "following" do
user.following.size.to_s #=> "1301"
end
end
# /search?q=barbaz
r.is "search", :param=>"q" do |query|
"Searched for #{query}" #=> "Searched for barbaz"
end
end
# only POST requests
r.post do
r.is "login" do
# POST /login, user: foo, pass: baz
r.on({:param=>"user"}, {:param=>"pass"}) do |user, pass|
"#{user}:#{pass}" #=> "foo:baz"
end
# If the params user and pass are not provided, this
# will get executed.
"You need to provide user and pass!"
end
end
end
end
Here's a description of the matchers. Note that segment as used
here means one part of the path preceeded by a +/+. So a path such
as +/foo/bar//baz+ has 4 segments, +/foo+, +/bar+, +/+ and +/baz+.
The +/+ here is considered the empty segment.
=== String
If it does not contain a colon or slash, it matches single segment
with the text of the string, preceeded by a slash.
"" # matches "/"
"foo" # matches "/foo"
"foo" # does not match "/food"
If it contains any slashes, it matches one additional segment for
each slash:
"foo/bar" # matches "/foo/bar"
"foo/bar" # does not match "/foo/bard"
If it contains a colon followed by any \\w characters, the colon and
remaing \\w characters matches any nonempty segment that contains at
least one character:
"foo/:id" # matches "/foo/bar", "/foo/baz", etc.
"foo/:id" # does not match "/fo/bar"
You can use multiple colons in a string:
":x/:y" # matches "/foo/bar", "/bar/foo" etc.
":x/:y" # does not match "/foo", "/bar/"
You can prefix colons:
"foo:x/bar:y" # matches "/food/bard", "/fool/bart", etc.
"foo:x/bar:y" # does not match "/foo/bart", "/fool/bar", etc.
If any colons are used, the block will yield one argument for
each segment matched containing the matched text. So:
"foo:x/:y" # matching "/fool/bar" yields "l", "bar"
Colons that are not followed by a \\w character are matched literally:
":/a" # matches "/:/a"
Note that strings are regexp escaped before being used in a regular
expression, so:
"\\d+(/\\w+)?" # matches "/\d+(/\w+)?"
"\\d+(/\\w+)?" # does not match "/123/abc"
=== Regexp
Regexps match one or more segments by looking for the pattern preceeded by a
slash:
/foo\w+/ # matches "/foobar"
/foo\w+/ # does not match "/foo/bar"
If any patterns are captured by the regexp, they are yielded:
/foo\w+/ # matches "/foobar", yields nothing
/foo(\w+)/ # matches "/foobar", yields "bar"
=== Symbol
Symbols match any nonempty segment, yielding the segment except for the
preceeding slash:
:id # matches "/foo" yields "foo"
:id # does not match "/"
=== Proc
Procs match unless they return false or nil:
proc{true} # matches anything
proc{false} # does not match anything
Procs don't capture anything by default, but they can if you add
the captured text to +r.captures+.
=== Arrays
Arrays match when any of their elements matches. If multiple matchers
are given to +r.on+, they all must match (an AND condition), while
if an array of matchers is given, only one needs to match (an OR
condition). Evaluation stops at the first matcher that matches.
Additionally, if the matched object is a String, the string is yielded.
This makes it easy to handle multiple strings without a Regexp:
['page1', 'page2'] # matches "/page1", "/page2"
[] # does not match anything
=== Hash
Hashes allow easily calling specialized match methods on the request.
The default registered matchers included with Roda are documented below.
You can add your own hash matchers using the +hash_matcher+ class method,
which creates an appropriate request match method. The +hash_matcher+
block will be called with the value of the hash.
class App < Roda
hash_matcher(:foo) do |v|
# ...
end
route do |r|
r.on :foo=>'bar' do
# ...
end
end
end
==== :all
The :all matcher matches if all of the entries in the given array matches. So
r.on :all=>[:a, :b] do
# ...
end
is the same as:
r.on :a, :b do
# ...
end
The reason it also exists as a separate hash matcher is so you can use it inside
an array matcher. so:
r.on ['foo', {:all=>['foos', :id]}] do
end
Would match +/foo+ and +/foos/10+, but not +/foos+.
==== :extension
The :extension matcher matches any nonempty path ending with the given extension:
{:extension => "css"} # matches "/foo.css", "/bar.css"
{:extension => "css"} # does not match "/foo.css/x", "/foo.bar", "/.css"
This matcher yields the part before the extension.
==== :method
This matches the method of the request. You can provide an array to specify multiple
request methods and match on any of them:
{:method => :post} # matches POST
{:method => ['post', 'patch']} # matches POST and PATCH
==== :param
The :param matcher matches if the given parameter is present, even if empty.
{:param => "user"} # matches "/foo?user=bar", "/foo?user="
{:param => "user"} # does not matches "/foo"
==== :param!
The :param! matcher matches if the given parameter is present and not empty.
{:param! => "user"} # matches "/foo?user=bar"
{:param! => "user"} # does not matches "/foo", "/foo?user="
=== false, nil
If false or nil is given directly as a matcher, it doesn't match anything.
=== Everything else
Everything else matches anything.
== Status codes
When it comes time to finalize a response, if a status code has not
been set manually, it will use a 200 status code if anything has been
written to the response, otherwise it will use a 404 status code.
This enables the principle of least surprise to work, where if you
don't handle an action, a 404 response is assumed.
You can always set the status code manually via the status attribute
for the response.
route do |r|
r.get "hello" do
response.status = 200
end
end
== Verb Methods
The main match method is +r.on+, but as displayed above, you can also
use +r.get+ or +r.post+. When called without any arguments, these
match as long as the request has the appropriate method, so:
r.get do end
matches any +GET+ request, and
r.post do end
matches any +POST+ request
If any arguments are given to the method, these match only
if the request method matches, all arguments match, and
only the path has been fully matched by the arguments. So:
r.post "" do end
matches only +POST+ requests where the current path is +/+.
r.get "a/b" do end
matches only +GET+ requests where the current path is +/a/b+.
The reason for this difference in behavior is that if you are not
providing any arguments, you probably don't want to to also test
for an exact match with the current path. If that is something
you do want, you can provide true as an argument:
r.on "foo" do
r.get true do # Matches GET /foo, not GET /foo/.*
end
end
If you want to match the request method and do a partial match
on the request path instead of a full match, you need to use
+r.on+ with the :method hash matcher:
r.on "foo", :method=>:get do # Matches GET /foo(/.*)?
end
== Root Method
As displayed above, you can also use +r.root+ as a match method. This
method matches +GET+ requests where the current path +/+. +r.root+ is
similar to r.get "", except that it does not consume the +/+ from the path.
Unlike the other matching methods, +r.root+ takes no arguments.
Note that +r.root+ does not match if the path is empty, you should use
r.get true for that. If you want to match either the
the empty path or +/+, you can use r.get ["", true].
Note that +r.root+ does not match non-GET requests, so to handle
POST / requests, use r.post ''.
== Request and Response
While the request object is yielded to the route block, it is also
available via the +request+ method. Likewise, the response object
is available via the +response+ method.
The request object is an instance of a subclass of Rack::Request
with some additional methods, and the response object is an
instance of a subclass of Rack::Response with some additional
methods.
If you want to extend the request and response objects with additional
modules, you can do so via the +request_module+ or +response_module+
methods, or via plugins.
== Pollution
Roda tries very hard to avoid polluting the scope of the +route+
block. The only instance variables defined by default in the scope of
the +route+ block are @_request and @_response. The only methods defined
(beyond the default methods for +Object+) are: +env+, +opts+, +request+,
+response+, +call+, +session+, and +_route+ (private). Constants inside the
Roda namespace are all prefixed with +Roda+ (e.g. Roda::RodaRequest). This
should make it unlikely that Roda will cause a namespace issue with your
application code.
== Captures
You may have noticed that some matchers yield a value to the block. The rules
for determining if a matcher will yield a value are simple:
1. Regexp captures: /posts\/(\d+)-(.*)/ will yield two values, corresponding to each capture.
2. String placeholders: "users/:id" will yield the value in the position of +:id+.
3. Symbols: +:foobar+ will yield if a segment is available.
4. File extensions: :extension=>"css" will yield the basename of the matched file.
5. Parameters: :param=>"user" will yield the value of the parameter user, if present.
The first case is important because it shows the underlying effect of regex
captures.
In the second case, the substring +:id+ gets replaced by ([^\\/]+) and the
regexp becomes /users\/([^\/]+)/ before performing the match, thus it reverts
to the first form we saw.
In the third case, the symbol, no matter what it says, gets replaced
by /([^\\/]+)/, and again we are in presence of case 1.
The fourth case, again, reverts to the basic matcher: it generates the string
/([^\/]+?)\.#{ext}\z/ before performing the match.
The fifth case is different: it checks if the the parameter supplied is present
in the request (via POST or QUERY_STRING) and it pushes the value as a capture.
== Composition
You can mount any Rack app (including another Roda app), with its own middlewares,
inside a Roda app, using +r.run+:
class API < Roda
use SomeMiddleware
route do |r|
r.is do
# ...
end
end
end
class App < Roda
route do |r|
r.on "api" do
r.run API
end
end
end
run App.app
This will take any path starting with +/api+ and send it to +API+. In this
example, +API+ is a Roda app, but it could easily be a Sinatra, Rails, or
other Rack app.
When you use +r.run+, Roda calls the given Rack app (+API+ in this
case), and whatever the Rack app returns will be returned as the response
for the current application.
=== multi_route plugin
If you are just looking to split up the main route block up by branches, you
should use the +multi_route+ plugin, which keeps the current scope of
the route block:
class App < Roda
plugin :multi_route
route "api" do |r|
r.is do
# ...
end
end
route do |r|
r.on "api" do
r.route "api"
end
end
end
run App.app
This allows you to set instance variables in the main route block, and still
have access to them inside the +api+ route block.
== Testing
It is very easy to test Roda with {Rack::Test}[https://github.com/brynary/rack-test]
or {Capybara}[https://github.com/jnicklas/capybara]. Roda's own tests use
{RSpec}[http://rspec.info]. The default rake task will run the specs for Roda, if
RSpec is installed.
== Settings
Each Roda app can store settings in the +opts+ hash. The settings are
inherited if you happen to subclass +Roda+.
Roda.opts[:layout] = "guest"
class Users < Roda; end
class Admin < Roda; end
Admin.opts[:layout] = "admin"
Users.opts[:layout] # => 'guest'
Admin.opts[:layout] # => 'admin'
Feel free to store whatever you find convenient. Note that when subclassing,
Roda only does a shallow clone of the settings. If you store nested structures
and plan to mutate them in subclasses, it is your responsibility to dup the nested
structures inside +Roda.inherited+ (making sure to call +super+). The
plugins that ship with Roda all handle this. Also, note that this means that
future modifications to the parent class after subclassing do not affect the
subclass.
== Rendering
Roda ships with a +render+ plugin that provides helpers for rendering templates. It uses
{Tilt}[https://github.com/rtomayko/tilt], a gem that interfaces with many template
engines. The +erb+ engine is used by default.
Note that in order to use this plugin you need to have Tilt installed, along
with the templating engines you want to use.
This plugin adds the +render+ and +view+ methods, for rendering templates.
The difference between +render+ and +view+ is that +view+ will by default
attempt to render the template inside the default layout template, where
+render+ will just render the template.
class App < Roda
plugin :render
route do |r|
@var = '1'
r.is "render" do
# Renders the views/home.erb template, which will have access to the
# instance variable @var, as well as local variable content
render("home", :locals=>{:content => "hello, world"})
end
r.is "view" do
@var2 = '1'
# Renders the views/home.erb template, which will have access to the
# instance variables @var and @var2, and takes the output of that and
# renders it inside views/layout.erb (which should yield where the
# content should be inserted).
view("home")
end
end
end
You can override the default rendering options by passing a hash to the plugin,
or modifying the +render_opts+ hash after loading the plugin:
class App < Roda
plugin :render, :escape => true # Automatically escape output in erb templates
render_opts[:views] = 'admin_views' # Default views directory
render_opts[:layout] = "admin_layout" # Default layout template
render_opts[:layout_opts] = {:engine=>'haml'} # Default layout template options
render_opts[:opts] = {:default_encoding=>'UTF-8'} # Default template options
render_opts[:cache] = false # Disable template caching
render_opts[:engine] = 'slim' # Tilt engine/template file extension to use
end
== Sessions
By default, Roda doesn't turn on sessions, but most users are going to
want to turn on session support, and the simplest way to do that is to
use the Rack::Session::Cookie middleware that comes with rack:
require "roda"
class App < Roda
use Rack::Session::Cookie, :secret => ENV['SECRET']
end
== Security
Web application security is a very large topic, but here are some
things you can do with Roda to prevent some common web application
vulnerabilities.
=== Session Security
If you are using sessions, you should also always set a session
secret using the +:secret+ option as shown above. Make sure this
secret is not disclosed, because if an attacker knows the +:secret+
value, they can inject arbitrary session values, which in the worst case
scenario can lead to remote code execution.
Keep in mind that with Rack::Session::Cookie, the content in
the session cookie is not encrypted, just signed to prevent tampering.
This means you should not store any data in the session that itself is
secret.
=== Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CSRF can be prevented by using the +csrf+ plugin that ships with Roda,
which uses the {rack_csrf}[https://github.com/baldowl/rack_csrf]
library. Just make sure that you include the CSRF token tags in your
html as appropriate.
It's also possible to use the Rack::Csrf middleware directly,
you don't have to use the +csrf+ plugin.
=== Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
The easiest way to prevent XSS with Roda is to use a template library
that automatically escapes output by default. The +:escape+ option
to the render plugin sets the ERB template processor to escape by
default, so that in your templates:
<%= '<>' %> # outputs <>
<%== '<>' %> # outputs <>
Note that unlike most other render options, the :escape option
must be passed to the plugin :render call, it won't be
respected if added later.
This support requires {Erubis}[http://www.kuwata-lab.com/erubis/].
=== Other
For prevention of some other vulnerabilities, such as click-jacking,
directory traversal, session hijacking, and IP spoofing, consider using
{Rack::Protection}[https://github.com/rkh/rack-protection], which is
a rack middleware that can be added the usual way:
require 'roda'
require 'rack/protection'
class App < Roda
use Rack::Protection
end
== Plugins
Roda provides a way to extend its functionality with plugins. Plugins can
override any Roda method and call +super+ to get the default behavior.
=== Included Plugins
These plugins ship with roda:
all_verbs :: Adds routing methods to the request for all http verbs.
backtracking_array :: Allows array matchers to backtrack if later matchers
do not match.
content_for :: Allows storage of content in one template and retrieval of
that content in a different template.
csrf :: Adds CSRF protection and helper methods using
{rack_csrf}[https://github.com/baldowl/rack_csrf].
default_headers :: Override the default response headers used.
error_handler :: Adds a +error+ block that is called for all responses that
raise exceptions.
flash :: Adds a flash handler.
h :: Adds h method for html escaping.
halt :: Augments request#halt method to take status and/or body or status,
headers, and body.
head :: Treat HEAD requests like GET requests with an empty response body.
header_matchers :: Adds host, header, and accept hash matchers.
hooks :: Adds before and after methods to run code before and after requests.
indifferent_params :: Adds params method with indifferent access to params,
allowing use of symbol keys for accessing params.
json :: Allows match blocks to return arrays and hashes, using a json
representation as the response body.
middleware :: Allows the Roda app to be used as a rack middleware, calling the
next middleware if no route matches.
multi_route :: Adds the ability for multiple named route blocks, with the
ability to dispatch to them add any point in the main route block.
not_allowed :: Adds support for automatically returning 405 Method Not Allowed
responses.
not_found :: Adds a +not_found+ block that is called for all 404 responses
without bodies.
pass :: Adds a pass method allowing you to skip the current +r.on+ block as if
it did not match.
per_thread_caching :: Switches the thread-safe cache from a shared cache to a
per-thread cache.
render :: Adds support for rendering templates via tilt, as described above.
render_each :: Render a template for each value in an enumerable.
streaming :: Adds support for streaming responses.
symbol_matchers :: Adds support for symbol-specific matching regexps.
symbol_views :: Allows match blocks to return template name symbols, uses the
template view as the response body.
view_subdirs :: Allows for setting a view subdirectory to use on a per-request
basis.
=== External Plugins
The following libraries include Roda plugins:
forme :: Adds support for easy HTML form creation in erb templates.
autoforme :: Adds support for easily creating a simple administrative front
end for Sequel models.
=== How to create plugins
Authoring your own plugins is pretty straightforward. Plugins are just modules,
which may contain any of the following modules:
InstanceMethods :: module included in the Roda class
ClassMethods :: module that extends the Roda class
RequestMethods :: module included in the class of the request
RequestClassMethods :: module extending the class of the request
ResponseMethods :: module included in the class of the response
ResponseClassMethods :: module extending the class of the response
If the plugin responds to +load_dependencies+, it will be called first, and should
be used if the plugin depends on another plugin.
If the plugin responds to +configure+, it will be called last, and should be
used to configure the plugin.
Both +load_dependencies+ and +configure+ are called with the additional arguments
and block given to the plugin call.
So a simple plugin to add an instance method would be:
module MarkdownHelper
module InstanceMethods
def markdown(str)
BlueCloth.new(str).to_html
end
end
end
Roda.plugin MarkdownHelper
=== Registering plugins
If you want to ship a Roda plugin in a gem, but still have
Roda load it automatically via Roda.plugin :plugin_name, you should
place it where it can be required via +roda/plugins/plugin_name+, and
then have the file register it as a plugin via
Roda::RodaPlugins.register_plugin. It's recommended but not required
that you store your plugin module in the Roda::RodaPlugins namespace:
module Roda
module RodaPlugins
module Markdown
module InstanceMethods
def markdown(str)
BlueCloth.new(str).to_html
end
end
end
register_plugin :markdown, Markdown
end
end
You should avoid creating your module directly in the +Roda+ namespace
to avoid polluting the namespace. Additionally, any instance variables
created inside InstanceMethods should be prefixed with an underscore
(e.g. @_variable) to avoid polluting the scope.
== License
MIT
== Maintainer
Jeremy Evans