summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/docs/en/cowboy/2.0/guide/handlers/index.html
blob: dbb50c85d4cfd0d4268886862f992c0177f2b73b (plain) (blame)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <meta name="description" content="">
    <meta name="author" content="Loïc Hoguin based on a design from (Soft10) Pol Cámara">

    <meta name="generator" content="Hugo 0.17" />

    <title>Nine Nines: Handlers</title>

    <link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:400,700,400italic' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
    <link href="/css/99s.css?r=1" rel="stylesheet">

    <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/img/ico/favicon.ico">
    <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="/img/ico/apple-touch-icon-114.png">
    <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="/img/ico/apple-touch-icon-72.png">
    <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/img/ico/apple-touch-icon-57.png">

    
</head>


<body class="">
  <header id="page-head">
    <div id="topbar" class="container">
        <div class="row">
          <div class="span2">
            <h1 id="logo"><a href="/" title="99s">99s</a></h1>
          </div>
          <div class="span10">
            
            <div id="side-header">
              <nav>
                <ul>
                  <li><a title="Hear my thoughts" href="/articles">Articles</a></li>
  				  <li><a title="Watch my talks" href="/talks">Talks</a></li>
  				  <li class="active"><a title="Read the docs" href="/docs">Documentation</a></li>
  				  <li><a title="Request my services" href="/services">Consulting & Training</a></li>
                </ul>
              </nav> 
              <ul id="social">
                <li>
                  <a href="https://github.com/ninenines" title="Check my Github repositories"><img src="/img/ico_github.png" data-hover="/img/ico_github_alt.png" alt="Github"></a>
                </li>
                    <li>
						<a title="Keep in touch!" href="http://twitter.com/lhoguin"><img src="/img/ico_microblog.png" data-hover="/img/ico_microblog_alt.png"></a>
					</li>
                    <li>
						<a title="Contact me" href="mailto:[email protected]"><img src="/img/ico_mail.png" data-hover="/img/ico_mail_alt.png"></a>
					</li>
              </ul>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
    </div>


</header>

<div id="contents" class="two_col">
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div id="docs" class="span9 maincol">

<h1 class="lined-header"><span>Handlers</span></h1>

<div class="paragraph"><p>Handlers are Erlang modules that handle HTTP requests.</p></div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_plain_http_handlers">Plain HTTP handlers</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>The most basic handler in Cowboy implements the mandatory
<code>init/2</code> callback, manipulates the request, optionally
sends a response and then returns.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This callback receives the <a href="../req">Req object</a> and the initial
state defined in the <a href="../routing">router configuration</a>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A handler that does nothing would look like this:</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content"><!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.8
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre><tt><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #000000">init</span></span>(<span style="color: #009900">Req</span>, <span style="color: #009900">State</span>) <span style="color: #990000">-&gt;</span>
    {<span style="color: #FF6600">ok</span>, <span style="color: #009900">Req</span>, <span style="color: #009900">State</span>}<span style="color: #990000">.</span></tt></pre></div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Despite sending no reply, a <code>204 No Content</code> response will be
sent to the client, as Cowboy makes sure that a response is
sent for every request.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>We need to use the Req object to reply.</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content"><!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.8
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre><tt><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #000000">init</span></span>(<span style="color: #009900">Req0</span>, <span style="color: #009900">State</span>) <span style="color: #990000">-&gt;</span>
    <span style="color: #009900">Req</span> <span style="color: #990000">=</span> <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #000000">cowboy_req:reply</span></span>(<span style="color: #993399">200</span>, #{
        <span style="color: #990000">&lt;&lt;</span><span style="color: #FF0000">"content-type"</span><span style="color: #990000">&gt;&gt;</span> <span style="color: #990000">=&gt;</span> <span style="color: #990000">&lt;&lt;</span><span style="color: #FF0000">"text/plain"</span><span style="color: #990000">&gt;&gt;</span>
    }, <span style="color: #990000">&lt;&lt;</span><span style="color: #FF0000">"Hello World!"</span><span style="color: #990000">&gt;&gt;</span>, <span style="color: #009900">Req0</span>),
    {<span style="color: #FF6600">ok</span>, <span style="color: #009900">Req</span>, <span style="color: #009900">State</span>}<span style="color: #990000">.</span></tt></pre></div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Cowboy will immediately send a response when <code>cowboy:reply/4</code>
is called.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>We then return a 3-tuple. <code>ok</code> means that the handler ran
successfully. We also give the modified Req back to Cowboy.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The last value of the tuple is a state that will be used
in every subsequent callbacks to this handler. Plain HTTP
handlers only have one additional callback, the optional
and rarely used <code>terminate/3</code>.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_other_handlers">Other handlers</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>init/2</code> callback can also be used to inform Cowboy
that this is a different kind of handler and that Cowboy
should switch to it. To do this you simply need to return
the module name of the handler type you want to switch to.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Cowboy comes with three handler types you can switch to:
<a href="../rest_handlers">cowboy_rest</a>, <a href="#ws_handlers">cowboy_websocket</a>
and <a href="../loop_handlers">cowboy_loop</a>. In addition to those you
can define your own handler types.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Switching is simple. Instead of returning <code>ok</code>, you simply
return the name of the handler type you want to use. The
following snippet switches to a Websocket handler:</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content"><!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.8
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre><tt><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #000000">init</span></span>(<span style="color: #009900">Req</span>, <span style="color: #009900">State</span>) <span style="color: #990000">-&gt;</span>
    {<span style="color: #FF6600">cowboy_websocket</span>, <span style="color: #009900">Req</span>, <span style="color: #009900">State</span>}<span style="color: #990000">.</span></tt></pre></div></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_cleaning_up">Cleaning up</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>All handler types provide the optional <code>terminate/3</code> callback.</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content"><!-- Generator: GNU source-highlight 3.1.8
by Lorenzo Bettini
http://www.lorenzobettini.it
http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
<pre><tt><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #000000">terminate</span></span>(<span style="color: #009900">_Reason</span>, <span style="color: #009900">_Req</span>, <span style="color: #009900">_State</span>) <span style="color: #990000">-&gt;</span>
    <span style="color: #FF6600">ok</span><span style="color: #990000">.</span></tt></pre></div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This callback is strictly reserved for any required cleanup.
You cannot send a response from this function. There is no
other return value.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This callback is optional because it is rarely necessary.
Cleanup should be done in separate processes directly (by
monitoring the handler process to detect when it exits).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Cowboy does not reuse processes for different requests. The
process will terminate soon after this call returns.</p></div>
</div>
</div>



	
		
		

		<nav style="margin:1em 0">
			
				<a style="float:left" href="https://ninenines.eu/docs/en/cowboy/2.0/guide/constraints/">
					Constraints
				</a>
			

			
				<a style="float:right" href="https://ninenines.eu/docs/en/cowboy/2.0/guide/loop_handlers/">
					Loop handlers
				</a>
			
		</nav>
	



</div>

<div class="span3 sidecol">


<h3>
	Cowboy
	2.0
	
	User Guide
</h3>

<ul>
	
		<li><a href="/docs/en/cowboy/2.0/guide">User Guide</a></li>
	
	
		<li><a href="/docs/en/cowboy/2.0/manual">Function Reference</a></li>
	
	
</ul>

<h4 id="docs-nav">Navigation</h4>

<h4>Version select</h4>
<ul>
	
	
	
		<li><a href="/docs/en/cowboy/2.0/guide">2.0</a></li>
	
		<li><a href="/docs/en/cowboy/1.0/guide">1.0</a></li>
	
</ul>

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

      <footer>
        <div class="container">
          <div class="row">
            <div class="span6">
              <p id="scroll-top"><a href="#">↑ Scroll to top</a></p>
              <nav>
                <ul>
                  <li><a href="mailto:[email protected]" title="Contact us">Contact us</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/ninenines/ninenines.github.io" title="Github repository">Contribute to this site</a></li>
                </ul>
              </nav>
            </div>
            <div class="span6 credits">
               <p><img src="/img/footer_logo.png"></p>
               <p>Copyright &copy; Loïc Hoguin 2012-2016</p>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </footer>

    
    <script src="/js/custom.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>