pekko/akka-docs/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/routes.rst
2016-01-14 00:31:03 +01:00

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.. _Routes:
Routes
======
The "Route" is the central concept of Akka HTTP's Routing DSL. All the structures you build with the DSL, no matter
whether they consists of a single line or span several hundred lines, are instances of this type::
type Route = RequestContext ⇒ Future[RouteResult]
It's a simple alias for a function turning a ``RequestContext`` into a ``Future[RouteResult]``.
Generally when a route receives a request (or rather a ``RequestContext`` for it) it can do one of these things:
- Complete the request by returning the value of ``requestContext.complete(...)``
- Reject the request by returning the value of ``requestContext.reject(...)`` (see :ref:`rejections-scala`)
- Fail the request by returning the value of ``requestContext.fail(...)`` or by just throwing an exception (see :ref:`exception-handling-scala`)
- Do any kind of asynchronous processing and instantly return a ``Future[RouteResult]`` to be eventually completed later
The first case is pretty clear, by calling ``complete`` a given response is sent to the client as reaction to the
request. In the second case "reject" means that the route does not want to handle the request. You'll see further down
in the section about route composition what this is good for.
A ``Route`` can be "sealed" using ``Route.seal``, which relies on the in-scope ``RejectionHandler`` and ``ExceptionHandler``
instances to convert rejections and exceptions into appropriate HTTP responses for the client.
Using ``Route.handlerFlow`` or ``Route.asyncHandler`` a ``Route`` can be lifted into a handler ``Flow`` or async handler
function to be used with a ``bindAndHandleXXX`` call from the :ref:`http-low-level-server-side-api`.
Note: There is also an implicit conversion from ``Route`` to ``Flow[HttpRequest, HttpResponse, Unit]`` defined in the
``RouteResult`` companion, which relies on ``Route.handlerFlow``.
.. _RequestContext:
RequestContext
--------------
The request context wraps an ``HttpRequest`` instance to enrich it with additional information that are typically
required by the routing logic, like an ``ExecutionContext``, ``Materializer``, ``LoggingAdapter`` and the configured
``RoutingSettings``. It also contains the ``unmatchedPath``, a value that describes how much of the request URI has not
yet been matched by a :ref:`Path Directive <PathDirectives>`.
The ``RequestContext`` itself is immutable but contains several helper methods which allow for convenient creation of
modified copies.
.. _RouteResult:
RouteResult
-----------
``RouteResult`` is a simple abstract data type (ADT) that models the possible non-error results of a ``Route``.
It is defined as such::
sealed trait RouteResult
object RouteResult {
final case class Complete(response: HttpResponse) extends RouteResult
final case class Rejected(rejections: immutable.Seq[Rejection]) extends RouteResult
}
Usually you don't create any ``RouteResult`` instances yourself, but rather rely on the pre-defined :ref:`RouteDirectives`
(like :ref:`-complete-`, :ref:`-reject-` or :ref:`-redirect-`) or the respective methods on the :ref:`RequestContext`
instead.
Composing Routes
----------------
There are three basic operations we need for building more complex routes from simpler ones:
- Route transformation, which delegates processing to another, "inner" route but in the process changes some properties
of either the incoming request, the outgoing response or both
- Route filtering, which only lets requests satisfying a given filter condition pass and rejects all others
- Route chaining, which tries a second route if a given first one was rejected
The last point is achieved with the concatenation operator ``~``, which is an extension method that becomes available
when you ``import akka.http.scaladsl.server.Directives._``.
The first two points are provided by so-called :ref:`Directives` of which a large number is already predefined by Akka
HTTP and which you can also easily create yourself.
:ref:`Directives` deliver most of Akka HTTP's power and flexibility.
.. _The Routing Tree:
The Routing Tree
----------------
Essentially, when you combine directives and custom routes via nesting and the ``~`` operator, you build a routing
structure that forms a tree. When a request comes in it is injected into this tree at the root and flows down through
all the branches in a depth-first manner until either some node completes it or it is fully rejected.
Consider this schematic example::
val route =
a {
b {
c {
... // route 1
} ~
d {
... // route 2
} ~
... // route 3
} ~
e {
... // route 4
}
}
Here five directives form a routing tree.
- Route 1 will only be reached if directives ``a``, ``b`` and ``c`` all let the request pass through.
- Route 2 will run if ``a`` and ``b`` pass, ``c`` rejects and ``d`` passes.
- Route 3 will run if ``a`` and ``b`` pass, but ``c`` and ``d`` reject.
Route 3 can therefore be seen as a "catch-all" route that only kicks in, if routes chained into preceding positions
reject. This mechanism can make complex filtering logic quite easy to implement: simply put the most
specific cases up front and the most general cases in the back.