zerve

A simple framework for writing web services in zig.

• Create a simple Web App
• Types
  • Route
  • Handler Functions
  • Request
    • Get Query Params
    • Get Header Value by Key
  • Response
  • Header
  • Cookies
    • Read Cookie from Request
    • Add Cookie to Response
  • Method
  • HTTP-Version
• Namespaces
  • Server

Create a simple web app

const zrv = @import("zerve"); // Or set the path to zerve.zig e.g. @import("zerve-main/src/zerve.zig");
const Request = zrv.Request;
const Response = zrv.Response;
const Server = zrv.Server;
const Route = zrv.Route;
const allocator = std.heap.page_allocator; // Choose any allocator you want!

fn index(req: *Request) Response {
    _=req;
    return Response.write("hello!");
}

fn about(req: *Request) Response {
    _=req;
    return Response.write("about site");
}

fn writeJson(req: *Request) Response {
    _=req;
    return Response.json("[1, 2, 3, 4]");
}

pub fn main() !void {
     const rt = [_]Route{.{"/", index}, .{"/about", about}, .{"/json", writeJson}};

     try Server.listen("0.0.0.0", 8080, &rt, allocator); // listens to http://localhost:8080
                                                         // http://localhost:8080/  "hello!"
                                                         // http://localhost:8080/about "about site"
                                                         // http://localhost:8080/json  "[1, 2, 3, 4]" (JSON-Response)
}

Types

Route

To write a web service with zerve you have to configure one or more Routes. They are being set by creating an Array of Route.

Example:

const rt = [_]Route{.{"/hello", helloFunction}, "/about", aboutFunction};

You can also set only one path and link it to a handler function, but since Server.listen() takes an Array of Route as one of it's arguments, you have do declare it as an Array as well:

const rt = [_]Route{.{"/hello", helloFunction}};

Handler Functions

Every Request is handled by a handler function. It has to be of this type: fn(req: *Request) Response

Example:

fn hello(req: *Request) Response {
    _ = req;
    return Response.write("hello"); // `Server` will return a Reponse with body "hello". You will see "hello" on your browser.
}

Request

This represents the Request sent by the client.

pub const Request = struct {
    /// The Request Method, e.g. "GET"
    method: Method,
    /// HTTP-Version of the Request sent by the client
    httpVersion: HTTP_Version,
    /// Represents the request headers sent by the client
    headers: []const Header,
    /// The Request URI
    uri: []const u8,
    /// Represents the request body sent by the client
    body: []const u8,
};

Get Query Params

zerve lets you easily extract query params no matter if Requestmethod is GETor POST.

This can be done by using the getQuery method of Request.

Example:

fn index(req: Request) Response {

    // Assuming that a query string has been sent by the client containing the requested param,
    // e.g. `?user=james`

    const user = req.getQuery("user"); // This will return an optional
    
    if (user == null) return Response.write("") else return Response.write(user.?);
    
}

Get value of Request header by key

You can get the header value of any sent header by the client with the headermethod of Request.

Example:

fn index(req: *Request) Response {
    
    // Get value of the 'Content-Type' header

    const h = req.header("Content-Type"); // This will return an optional

    if (h == null) return Response.write("Header not found!") else return Response.write(h.?);

}

Response

A Response that is sent ny the server. Every handler function has to return a Response.

pub const Response = struct {
    httpVersion: HTTP_Version = HTTP_Version.HTTP1_1,
    /// Response status, default is "200 OK"
    status: stat.Status = stat.Status.OK,
    /// Response eaders sent by the server
    headers: []const Header = &[_]Header{.{ .key = "Content-Type", .value = "text/html; charset=utf-8" }},
    /// Response body sent by the server
    body: []const u8 = "",

    /// Write a simple response.
    pub fn write(s: []const u8) Response

    /// Send a response with json content.
    pub fn json(j: []const u8) Response

    /// Send a response with status not found.
    pub fn notfound(s: []const u8) Response

    /// Send a response with status forbidden.
    pub fn forbidden(s: []u8) Response
};

Header

Every Request or Response has Headers represented by an Array of Headers. Every Header has a key and a value.

pub const Header = struct {
    key: []const u8,
    value: []const u8,
};

Cookies

Read Cookie from Request

To read the Cookie of a request by key, Request has a cookie-method. It returns an optional and fetches the value of a Request.Cookie.

Get Request Cookie value by key:

fn index(req: *Request) Response {
    
    // Fetches the cookie value by cookie name.
    // The `cookie` method will return an optional and will be `null`
    // in case that the cookie does not exist.

    const cookie = if (req.cookie("password")) |password| password else "";

    return Response.write("cookie-test");
}

Add Cookie to Response

To send a cookie in your Response just add a Response.Cookie to the cookies field. The cookies field is a slice of Response.Cookie.

fn index(_: *Request) Response {

    // Define a cookie with name and value.
    // It will live for 24 hours, since `maxAge` represents
    // lifetime in seconds.
    // See all field of the `Response.Cookie` struct below.

    const cookie = Response.Cookie{.name="User", .value="James", .maxAge=60*60*24};

    var res = Response.write("Set Cookie!");
    // add cookie to the `cookies` field which is a slice of `Response.Cookie`
    res.cookies = &[_]Response.Cookie{.{cookie}};
    
    return res;
}

This are the fields of Response.Cookie:

    name: []const u8,
    value: []const u8,
    path: []const u8 = "/",
    domain: []const u8 = "",
    /// Indicates the number of seconds until the cookie expires.
    maxAge: i64 = 0,
    secure: bool = true,
    httpOnly: bool = true,
    sameSite: SameSite = .lax,

Method

Represents the http method of a Request or a Response.

pub const Method = enum {
    GET,
    POST,
    PUT,
    HEAD,
    DELETE,
    CONNECT,
    OPTIONS,
    TRACE,
    PATCH,
    UNKNOWN,

    /// Turns the HTTP_method into a u8-Slice.
    pub fn stringify(m: Method) []const u8 {...}
};

HTTP-Version

The HTTP-Version of a Request or a Response.

pub const HTTP_Version = enum {
    HTTP1_1,
    HTTP2,

    /// Parses from `[]u8`
    pub fn parse(s: []const u8) HTTP_Version {...}

    /// Stringifies `HTTP_Version`
    pub fn stringify(version: HTTP_Version) []const u8 {...}

};

Namespaces

Server

Server is a namespace to configure IP and Port the app will listen to by calling Server.listen(), as well as the routing paths ([]Route) it shall handle. You can also choose an allocator that the app will use for dynamic memory allocation.

pub fn listen(ip: []const u8, port: u16, rt: []const Route, allocator: std.mem.Allocator) !void {...}