= Sinatra
Sinatra is a DSL for quickly creating web applications in Ruby with minimal effort:
require 'sinatra'
get '/' do 'Hello world!' end
Install the gem and run with:
gem install sinatra ruby -rubygems myapp.rb
View at: http://localhost:4567
It is recommended to also run gem install thin, which Sinatra will pick up if available.
== Routes
In Sinatra, a route is an HTTP method paired with a URL-matching pattern. Each route is associated with a block:
get '/' do .. show something .. end
post '/' do .. create something .. end
put '/' do .. replace something .. end
patch '/' do .. modify something .. end
delete '/' do .. annihilate something .. end
options '/' do .. appease something .. end
Routes are matched in the order they are defined. The first route that matches the request is invoked.
Route patterns may include named parameters, accessible via the params hash:
get '/hello/:name' do
# params[:name] is 'foo' or 'bar'
"Hello #{params[:name]}!"
end
You can also access named parameters via block parameters:
get '/hello/:name' do |n| "Hello #{n}!" end
Route patterns may also include splat (or wildcard) parameters, accessible via the params[:splat] array:
get '/say//to/' do
params[:splat] # => ["hello", "world"]
end
get '/download/.' do
params[:splat] # => ["path/to/file", "xml"]
end
Or with block parameters:
get '/download/.' do |path, ext| [path, ext] # => ["path/to/file", "xml"] end
Route matching with Regular Expressions:
get %r{/hello/([\w]+)} do "Hello, #{params[:captures].first}!" end
Or with a block parameter:
get %r{/hello/([\w]+)} do |c| "Hello, #{c}!" end
Route patterns may have optional parameters:
get '/posts.?:format?' do
end
By the way, unless you disable the path traversal attack protection (see below), the request path might be modified before matching against your routes.
=== Conditions
Routes may include a variety of matching conditions, such as the user agent:
get '/foo', :agent => /Songbird (\d.\d)[\d\/]*?/ do "You're using Songbird version #{params[:agent][0]}" end
get '/foo' do
end
Other available conditions are +host_name+ and +provides+:
get '/', :host_name => /^admin./ do "Admin Area, Access denied!" end
get '/', :provides => 'html' do haml :index end
get '/', :provides => ['rss', 'atom', 'xml'] do builder :feed end
You can easily define your own conditions:
set(:probability) { |value| condition { rand <= value } }
get '/win_a_car', :probability => 0.1 do "You won!" end
get '/win_a_car' do "Sorry, you lost." end
For a condition that takes multiple values use a splat:
set(:auth) do |*roles| # <- notice the splat here condition do unless logged_in? && roles.any? {|role| current_user.in_role? role } redirect "/login/", 303 end end end
get "/my/account/", :auth => [:user, :admin] do "Your Account Details" end
get "/only/admin/", :auth => :admin do "Only admins are allowed here!" end
=== Return Values
The return value of a route block determines at least the response body passed on to the HTTP client, or at least the next middleware in the Rack stack. Most commonly, this is a string, as in the above examples. But other values are also accepted.
You can return any object that would either be a valid Rack response, Rack body object or HTTP status code:
That way we can, for instance, easily implement a streaming example:
class Stream
def each
100.times { |i| yield "#{i}\n" }
end
end
get('/') { Stream.new }
You can also use the +stream+ helper method (described below) to reduce boiler plate and embed the streaming logic in the route.
=== Custom Route Matchers
As shown above, Sinatra ships with built-in support for using String patterns and regular expressions as route matches. However, it does not stop there. You can easily define your own matchers:
class AllButPattern Match = Struct.new(:captures)
def initialize(except)
@except = except
@captures = Match.new([])
end
def match(str)
@captures unless @except === str
end
end
def all_but(pattern) AllButPattern.new(pattern) end
get all_but("/index") do
end
Note that the above example might be over-engineered, as it can also be expressed as:
get // do pass if request.path_info == "/index"
end
Or, using negative look ahead:
get %r{^(?!/index$)} do
end
== Static Files
Static files are served from the ./public directory. You can specify a different location by setting the :public_folder option:
set :public_folder, File.dirname(FILE) + '/static'
Note that the public directory name is not included in the URL. A file ./public/css/style.css is made available as http://example.com/css/style.css.
Use the :static_cache_control setting (see below) to add Cache-Control header info.
== Views / Templates
Each template language is exposed as via its own rendering method. These methods simply return a string:
get '/' do erb :index end
This renders views/index.erb.
Instead of a template name, you can also just pass in the template content directly:
get '/' do code = "<%= Time.now %>" erb code end
Templates take a second argument, the options hash:
get '/' do erb :index, :layout => :post end
This will render views/index.erb embedded in the views/post.erb (default is views/layout.erb, if it exists).
Any options not understood by Sinatra will be passed on to the template engine:
get '/' do haml :index, :format => :html5 end
You can also set options per template language in general:
set :haml, :format => :html5
get '/' do haml :index end
Options passed to the render method override options set via +set+.
Available Options:
[locals] List of locals passed to the document. Handy with partials. Example: erb "<%= foo %>", :locals => {:foo => "bar"}
[default_encoding] String encoding to use if uncertain. Defaults to settings.default_encoding.
[views] Views folder to load templates from. Defaults to settings.views.
[layout] Whether to use a layout (+true+ or +false+), if it's a Symbol, specifies what template to use. Example: erb :index, :layout => !request.xhr?
[content_type] Content-Type the template produces, default depends on template language.
[scope] Scope to render template under. Defaults to the application instance. If you change this, instance variables and helper methods will not be available.
[layout_engine] Template engine to use for rendering the layout. Useful for languages that do not support layouts otherwise. Defaults to the engine used for the template. Example: set :rdoc, :layout_engine => :erb
Templates are assumed to be located directly under the ./views directory. To use a different views directory:
set :views, settings.root + '/templates'
One important thing to remember is that you always have to reference templates with symbols, even if they're in a subdirectory (in this case, use :'subdir/template'). You must use a symbol because otherwise rendering methods will render any strings passed to them directly.
=== Available Template Languages
Some languages have multiple implementations. To specify what implementation to use (and to be thread-safe), you should simply require it first:
require 'rdiscount' # or require 'bluecloth' get('/') { markdown :index }
=== Haml Templates
Dependency:: {haml}[http://haml-lang.com/] File Extensions:: .haml Example:: haml :index, :format => :html5
=== Erb Templates
Dependency:: {erubis}[http://www.kuwata-lab.com/erubis/] or erb (included in Ruby) File Extensions:: .erb, .rhtml or .erubis (Erubis only) Example:: erb :index
=== Builder Templates
Dependency:: {builder}[http://builder.rubyforge.org/] File Extensions:: .builder Example:: builder { |xml| xml.em "hi" }
It also takes a block for inline templates (see example).
=== Nokogiri Templates
Dependency:: {nokogiri}[http://nokogiri.org/] File Extensions:: .nokogiri Example:: nokogiri { |xml| xml.em "hi" }
It also takes a block for inline templates (see example).
=== Sass Templates
Dependency:: {sass}[http://sass-lang.com/] File Extensions:: .sass Example:: sass :stylesheet, :style => :expanded
=== SCSS Templates
Dependency:: {sass}[http://sass-lang.com/] File Extensions:: .scss Example:: scss :stylesheet, :style => :expanded
=== Less Templates
Dependency:: {less}[http://www.lesscss.org/] File Extensions:: .less Example:: less :stylesheet
=== Liquid Templates
Dependency:: {liquid}[http://www.liquidmarkup.org/] File Extensions:: .liquid Example:: liquid :index, :locals => { :key => 'value' }
Since you cannot call Ruby methods (except for +yield+) from a Liquid template, you almost always want to pass locals to it.
=== Markdown Templates
Dependency:: {rdiscount}[https://github.com/rtomayko/rdiscount], {redcarpet}[https://github.com/tanoku/redcarpet], {bluecloth}[http://deveiate.org/projects/BlueCloth], {kramdown}[http://kramdown.rubyforge.org/] or {maruku}[http://maruku.rubyforge.org/] File Extensions:: .markdown, .mkd and .md Example:: markdown :index, :layout_engine => :erb
It is not possible to call methods from markdown, nor to pass locals to it. You therefore will usually use it in combination with another rendering engine:
erb :overview, :locals => { :text => markdown(:introduction) }
Note that you may also call the +markdown+ method from within other templates:
%h1 Hello From Haml! %p= markdown(:greetings)
Since you cannot call Ruby from Markdown, you cannot use layouts written in Markdown. However, it is possible to use another rendering engine for the template than for the layout by passing the :layout_engine option.
=== Textile Templates
Dependency:: {RedCloth}[http://redcloth.org/] File Extensions:: .textile Example:: textile :index, :layout_engine => :erb
It is not possible to call methods from textile, nor to pass locals to it. You therefore will usually use it in combination with another rendering engine:
erb :overview, :locals => { :text => textile(:introduction) }
Note that you may also call the +textile+ method from within other templates:
%h1 Hello From Haml! %p= textile(:greetings)
Since you cannot call Ruby from Textile, you cannot use layouts written in Textile. However, it is possible to use another rendering engine for the template than for the layout by passing the :layout_engine option.
=== RDoc Templates
Dependency:: {rdoc}[http://rdoc.rubyforge.org/] File Extensions:: .rdoc Example:: rdoc :README, :layout_engine => :erb
It is not possible to call methods from rdoc, nor to pass locals to it. You therefore will usually use it in combination with another rendering engine:
erb :overview, :locals => { :text => rdoc(:introduction) }
Note that you may also call the +rdoc+ method from within other templates:
%h1 Hello From Haml! %p= rdoc(:greetings)
Since you cannot call Ruby from RDoc, you cannot use layouts written in RDoc. However, it is possible to use another rendering engine for the template than for the layout by passing the :layout_engine option.
=== Radius Templates
Dependency:: {radius}[http://radius.rubyforge.org/] File Extensions:: .radius Example:: radius :index, :locals => { :key => 'value' }
Since you cannot call Ruby methods directly from a Radius template, you almost always want to pass locals to it.
=== Markaby Templates
Dependency:: {markaby}[http://markaby.github.com/] File Extensions:: .mab Example:: markaby { h1 "Welcome!" }
It also takes a block for inline templates (see example).
=== Slim Templates
Dependency:: {slim}[http://slim-lang.com/] File Extensions:: .slim Example:: slim :index
=== Creole Templates
Dependency:: {creole}[https://github.com/minad/creole] File Extensions:: .creole Example:: creole :wiki, :layout_engine => :erb
It is not possible to call methods from creole, nor to pass locals to it. You therefore will usually use it in combination with another rendering engine:
erb :overview, :locals => { :text => creole(:introduction) }
Note that you may also call the +creole+ method from within other templates:
%h1 Hello From Haml! %p= creole(:greetings)
Since you cannot call Ruby from Creole, you cannot use layouts written in Creole. However, it is possible to use another rendering engine for the template than for the layout by passing the :layout_engine option.
=== CoffeeScript Templates
Dependency:: {coffee-script}[https://github.com/josh/ruby-coffee-script] and a {way to execute javascript}[https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs/blob/master/README.md#readme] File Extensions:: .coffee Example:: coffee :index
=== Embedded Templates
get '/' do haml '%div.title Hello World' end
Renders the embedded template string.
=== Accessing Variables in Templates
Templates are evaluated within the same context as route handlers. Instance variables set in route handlers are directly accessible by templates:
get '/:id' do @foo = Foo.find(params[:id]) haml '%h1= @foo.name' end
Or, specify an explicit Hash of local variables:
get '/:id' do foo = Foo.find(params[:id]) haml '%h1= bar.name', :locals => { :bar => foo } end
This is typically used when rendering templates as partials from within other templates.
=== Inline Templates
Templates may be defined at the end of the source file:
require 'sinatra'
get '/' do haml :index end
END
@@ layout %html = yield
@@ index %div.title Hello world!!!!!
NOTE: Inline templates defined in the source file that requires sinatra are automatically loaded. Call enable :inline_templates explicitly if you have inline templates in other source files.
=== Named Templates
Templates may also be defined using the top-level template method:
template :layout do "%html\n =yield\n" end
template :index do '%div.title Hello World!' end
get '/' do haml :index end
If a template named "layout" exists, it will be used each time a template is rendered. You can individually disable layouts by passing :layout => false or disable them by default via set :haml, :layout => false:
get '/' do haml :index, :layout => !request.xhr? end
=== Associating File Extensions
To associate a file extension with a template engine, use Tilt.register. For instance, if you like to use the file extension +tt+ for Textile templates, you can do the following:
Tilt.register :tt, Tilt[:textile]
=== Adding Your Own Template Engine
First, register your engine with Tilt, then create a rendering method:
Tilt.register :myat, MyAwesomeTemplateEngine
helpers do def myat(args) render(:myat, args) end end
get '/' do myat :index end
Renders ./views/index.myat. See https://github.com/rtomayko/tilt to learn more about Tilt.
== Filters
Before filters are evaluated before each request within the same context as the routes will be and can modify the request and response. Instance variables set in filters are accessible by routes and templates:
before do @note = 'Hi!' request.path_info = '/foo/bar/baz' end
get '/foo/*' do @note #=> 'Hi!' params[:splat] #=> 'bar/baz' end
After filters are evaluated after each request within the same context and can also modify the request and response. Instance variables set in before filters and routes are accessible by after filters:
after do puts response.status end
Note: Unless you use the +body+ method rather than just returning a String from the routes, the body will not yet be available in the after filter, since it is generated later on.
Filters optionally take a pattern, causing them to be evaluated only if the request path matches that pattern:
before '/protected/*' do authenticate! end
after '/create/:slug' do |slug| session[:last_slug] = slug end
Like routes, filters also take conditions:
before :agent => /Songbird/ do
end
after '/blog/*', :host_name => 'example.com' do
end
== Helpers
Use the top-level helpers method to define helper methods for use in route handlers and templates:
helpers do def bar(name) "#{name}bar" end end
get '/:name' do bar(params[:name]) end
=== Using Sessions
A session is used to keep state during requests. If activated, you have one session hash per user session:
enable :sessions
get '/' do "value = " << session[:value].inspect end
get '/:value' do session[:value] = params[:value] end
Note that enable :sessions actually stores all data in a cookie. This might not always be what you want (storing lots of data will increase your traffic, for instance). You can use any Rack session middleware: in order to do so, do not call enable :sessions, but instead pull in your middleware of choice as you would any other middleware:
use Rack::Session::Pool, :expire_after => 2592000
get '/' do "value = " << session[:value].inspect end
get '/:value' do session[:value] = params[:value] end
To improve security, the session data in the cookie is signed with a session secret. A random secret is generate for you by Sinatra. However, since this secret will change with every start of your application, you might want to set the secret yourself, so all your application instances share it:
set :session_secret, 'super secret'
If you want to configure it further, you may also store a hash with options in the +sessions+ setting:
set :sessions, :domain => 'foo.com'
=== Halting
To immediately stop a request within a filter or route use:
halt
You can also specify the status when halting:
halt 410
Or the body:
halt 'this will be the body'
Or both:
halt 401, 'go away!'
With headers:
halt 402, {'Content-Type' => 'text/plain'}, 'revenge'
It is of course possible to combine a template with +halt+:
halt erb(:error)
=== Passing
A route can punt processing to the next matching route using pass:
get '/guess/:who' do pass unless params[:who] == 'Frank' 'You got me!' end
get '/guess/*' do 'You missed!' end
The route block is immediately exited and control continues with the next matching route. If no matching route is found, a 404 is returned.
=== Triggering Another Route
Sometimes +pass+ is not what you want, instead you would like to get the result of calling another route. Simply use +call+ to achieve this:
get '/foo' do status, headers, body = call env.merge("PATH_INFO" => '/bar') [status, headers, body.map(&:upcase)] end
get '/bar' do "bar" end
Note that in the example above, you would ease testing and increase performance by simply moving "bar" into a helper used by both /foo and /bar.
If you want the request to be sent to the same application instance rather than a duplicate, use call! instead of call.
Check out the Rack specification if you want to learn more about call.
=== Setting Body, Status Code and Headers
It is possible and recommended to set the status code and response body with the return value of the route block. However, in some scenarios you might want to set the body at an arbitrary point in the execution flow. You can do so with the +body+ helper method. If you do so, you can use that method from there on to access the body:
get '/foo' do body "bar" end
after do puts body end
It is also possible to pass a block to +body+, which will be executed by the Rack handler (this can be used to implement streaming, see "Return Values").
Similar to the body, you can also set the status code and headers:
get '/foo' do status 418 headers \ "Allow" => "BREW, POST, GET, PROPFIND, WHEN", "Refresh" => "Refresh: 20; http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2324.txt" body "I'm a tea pot!" end
Like +body+, +headers+ and +status+ with no arguments can be used to access their current values.
=== Streaming Responses
Sometimes you want to start sending out data while still generating parts of the response body. In extreme examples, you want to keep sending data until the client closes the connection. You can use the +stream+ helper to avoid creating your own wrapper:
get '/' do stream do |out| out << "It's gonna be legen -\n" sleep 0.5 out << " (wait for it) \n" sleep 1 out << "- dary!\n" end end
This allows you to implement streaming APIs, {Server Sent Events}[http://dev.w3.org/html5/eventsource/] and can be used as basis for {WebSockets}[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket]. It can also be used to increase throughput if some but not all content depends on a slow resource.
Note that the streaming behavior, especially the number of concurrent request, highly depends on the web server used to serve the application. Some servers, like WEBRick, might not even support streaming at all. If the server does not support streaming, the body will be sent all at once after the block passed to +stream+ finished executing. Streaming does not work at all with Shotgun.
If the optional parameter is set to +keep_open+, it will not call +close+ on the stream object, allowing you to close it at any later point in the execution flow. This only works on evented servers, like Thin and Rainbows. Other servers will still close the stream:
set :server, :thin connections = []
get '/' do
stream(:keep_open) { |out| connections << out }
end
post '/' do
connections.each { |out| out << params[:message] << "\n" }
"message sent"
end
=== Logging
In the request scope, the +logger+ helper exposes a +Logger+ instance:
get '/' do logger.info "loading data"
end
This logger will automatically take your Rack handler's logging settings into account. If logging is disabled, this method will return a dummy object, so you do not have to worry in your routes and filters about it.
Note that logging is only enabled for Sinatra::Application by default, so if you inherit from Sinatra::Base, you probably want to enable it yourself:
class MyApp < Sinatra::Base configure :production, :development do enable :logging end end
To avoid any logging middleware to be set up, set the +logging+ setting to +nil+. However, keep in mind that +logger+ will in that case return +nil+. A common use case is when you want to set your own logger. Sinatra will use whatever it will find in env['rack.logger'].
=== Mime Types
When using send_file or static files you may have mime types Sinatra doesn't understand. Use +mime_type+ to register them by file extension:
configure do mime_type :foo, 'text/foo' end
You can also use it with the +content_type+ helper:
get '/' do content_type :foo "foo foo foo" end
=== Generating URLs
For generating URLs you should use the +url+ helper method, for instance, in Haml:
%a{:href => url('/foo')} foo
It takes reverse proxies and Rack routers into account, if present.
This method is also aliased to +to+ (see below for an example).
=== Browser Redirect
You can trigger a browser redirect with the +redirect+ helper method:
get '/foo' do redirect to('/bar') end
Any additional parameters are handled like arguments passed to +halt+:
redirect to('/bar'), 303 redirect 'http://google.com', 'wrong place, buddy'
You can also easily redirect back to the page the user came from with redirect back:
get '/foo' do "do something" end
get '/bar' do do_something redirect back end
To pass arguments with a redirect, either add them to the query:
redirect to('/bar?sum=42')
Or use a session:
enable :sessions
get '/foo' do session[:secret] = 'foo' redirect to('/bar') end
get '/bar' do session[:secret] end
=== Cache Control
Setting your headers correctly is the foundation for proper HTTP caching.
You can easily set the Cache-Control header with like this:
get '/' do cache_control :public "cache it!" end
Pro tip: Set up caching in a before filter:
before do cache_control :public, :must_revalidate, :max_age => 60 end
If you are using the +expires+ helper to set the corresponding header, Cache-Control will be set automatically for you:
before do expires 500, :public, :must_revalidate end
To properly use caches, you should consider using +etag+ or +last_modified+. It is recommended to call those helpers before doing heavy lifting, as they will immediately flush a response if the client already has the current version in its cache:
get '/article/:id' do @article = Article.find params[:id] last_modified @article.updated_at etag @article.sha1 erb :article end
It is also possible to use a {weak ETag}[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_ETag#Strong_and_weak_validation]:
etag @article.sha1, :weak
These helpers will not do any caching for you, but rather feed the necessary information to your cache. If you are looking for a quick reverse-proxy caching solution, try {rack-cache}[http://rtomayko.github.com/rack-cache/]:
require "rack/cache" require "sinatra"
use Rack::Cache
get '/' do cache_control :public, :max_age => 36000 sleep 5 "hello" end
Use the :static_cache_control setting (see below) to add Cache-Control header info to static files.
According to RFC 2616 your application should behave differently if the If-Match or If-None-Match header is set to * depending on whether the resource requested is already in existence. Sinatra assumes resources for safe (like get) and idempotent (like put) requests are already in existence, whereas other resources (for instance for post requests), are treated as new resources. You can change this behavior by passing in a :new_resource option:
get '/create' do etag '', :new_resource => true Article.create erb :new_article end
If you still want to use a weak ETag, pass in a :kind option:
etag '', :new_resource => true, :kind => :weak
=== Sending Files
For sending files, you can use the send_file helper method:
get '/' do send_file 'foo.png' end
It also takes a couple of options:
send_file 'foo.png', :type => :jpg
The options are:
[filename] file name, in response, defaults to the real file name.
[last_modified] value for Last-Modified header, defaults to the file's mtime.
[type] content type to use, guessed from the file extension if missing.
[disposition] used for Content-Disposition, possible values: +nil+ (default), :attachment and :inline
[length] Content-Length header, defaults to file size.
If supported by the Rack handler, other means than streaming from the Ruby process will be used. If you use this helper method, Sinatra will automatically handle range requests.
=== Accessing the Request Object
The incoming request object can be accessed from request level (filter, routes, error handlers) through the request method:
get '/foo' do t = %w[text/css text/html application/javascript] request.accept # ['text/html', '/'] request.accept? 'text/xml' # true request.preferred_type(t) # 'text/html' request.body # request body sent by the client (see below) request.scheme # "http" request.script_name # "/example" request.path_info # "/foo" request.port # 80 request.request_method # "GET" request.query_string # "" request.content_length # length of request.body request.media_type # media type of request.body request.host # "example.com" request.get? # true (similar methods for other verbs) request.form_data? # false request["SOME_HEADER"] # value of SOME_HEADER header request.referrer # the referrer of the client or '/' request.user_agent # user agent (used by :agent condition) request.cookies # hash of browser cookies request.xhr? # is this an ajax request? request.url # "http://example.com/example/foo" request.path # "/example/foo" request.ip # client IP address request.secure? # false (would be true over ssl) request.forwarded? # true (if running behind a reverse proxy) request.env # raw env hash handed in by Rack end
Some options, like script_name or path_info, can also be written:
before { request.path_info = "/" }
get "/" do "all requests end up here" end
The request.body is an IO or StringIO object:
post "/api" do request.body.rewind # in case someone already read it data = JSON.parse request.body.read "Hello #{data['name']}!" end
=== Attachments
You can use the +attachment+ helper to tell the browser the response should be stored on disk rather than displayed in the browser:
get '/' do attachment "store it!" end
You can also pass it a file name:
get '/' do attachment "info.txt" "store it!" end
=== Dealing with Date and Time
Sinatra offers a +time_for+ helper method, which, from the given value generates a Time object. It is also able to convert +DateTime+, +Date+ and similar classes:
get '/' do pass if Time.now > time_for('Dec 23, 2012') "still time" end
This method is used internally by +expires+, +last_modified+ and akin. You can therefore easily extend the behavior of those methods by overriding +time_for+ in your application:
helpers do def time_for(value) case value when :yesterday then Time.now - 246060 when :tomorrow then Time.now + 246060 else super end end end
get '/' do last_modified :yesterday expires :tomorrow "hello" end
=== Looking Up Template Files
The find_template helper is used to find template files for rendering:
find_template settings.views, 'foo', Tilt[:haml] do |file| puts "could be #{file}" end
This is not really useful. But it is useful that you can actually override this method to hook in your own lookup mechanism. For instance, if you want to be able to use more than one view directory:
set :views, ['views', 'templates']
helpers do def find_template(views, name, engine, &block) Array(views).each { |v| super(v, name, engine, &block) } end end
Another example would be using different directories for different engines:
set :views, :sass => 'views/sass', :haml => 'templates', :default => 'views'
helpers do def findtemplate(views, name, engine, &block) , folder = views.detect { |k,v| engine == Tilt[k] } folder ||= views[:default] super(folder, name, engine, &block) end end
You can also easily wrap this up in an extension and share with others!
Note that find_template does not check if the file really exists but rather calls the given block for all possible paths. This is not a performance issue, since +render+ will use +break+ as soon as a file is found. Also, template locations (and content) will be cached if you are not running in development mode. You should keep that in mind if you write a really crazy method.
== Configuration
Run once, at startup, in any environment:
configure do
set :option, 'value'
# setting multiple options
set :a => 1, :b => 2
# same as `set :option, true`
enable :option
# same as `set :option, false`
disable :option
# you can also have dynamic settings with blocks
set(:css_dir) { File.join(views, 'css') }
end
Run only when the environment (RACK_ENV environment variable) is set to :production:
configure :production do ... end
Run when the environment is set to either :production or :test:
configure :production, :test do ... end
You can access those options via settings:
configure do set :foo, 'bar' end
get '/' do settings.foo? # => true settings.foo # => 'bar' ... end
=== Configuring attack protection
Sinatra is using {Rack::Protection}[https://github.com/rkh/rack-protection#readme] to defend you application against common, opportunistic attacks. You can easily disable this behavior (which should result in performance gains):
disable :protection
To skip a single defense layer, set +protection+ to an options hash:
set :protection, :except => :path_traversal
You can also hand in an array in order to disable a list of protections:
set :protection, :except => [:path_traversal, :session_hijacking]
=== Available Settings
[absolute_redirects] If disabled, Sinatra will allow relative redirects, however, Sinatra will no longer conform with RFC 2616 (HTTP 1.1), which only allows absolute redirects.
Enable if your app is running behind a reverse proxy that
has not been set up properly. Note that the +url+ helper
will still produce absolute URLs, unless you pass in
+false+ as second parameter.
Disabled per default.
[add_charsets] mime types the content_type helper will automatically add the charset info to.
You should add to it rather than overriding this option:
settings.add_charsets << "application/foobar"
[app_file] Path to the main application file, used to detect project root, views and public folder and inline templates.
[bind] IP address to bind to (default: 0.0.0.0). Only used for built-in server.
[default_encoding] encoding to assume if unknown (defaults to "utf-8").
[dump_errors] display errors in the log.
[environment] current environment, defaults to ENV['RACK_ENV'], or "development" if not available.
[logging] use the logger.
[lock] Places a lock around every request, only running processing on request per Ruby process concurrently.
Enabled if your app is not thread-safe.
Disabled per default.
[method_override] use _method magic to allow put/delete forms in browsers that don't support it.
[port] Port to listen on. Only used for built-in server.
[prefixed_redirects] Whether or not to insert request.script_name into redirects if no absolute path is given. That way redirect '/foo' would behave like redirect to('/foo'). Disabled per default.
[protection] Whether or not to enable web attack protections. See protection section above.
[public_folder] Path to the folder public files are served from. Only used if static file serving is enabled (see static setting below). Inferred from app_file setting if not set.
[reload_templates] whether or not to reload templates between requests. Enabled in development mode.
[root] Path to project root folder. Inferred from +app_file+ setting if not set.
[raise_errors] raise exceptions (will stop application). Enabled by default when environment is set to "test", disabled otherwise.
[run] if enabled, Sinatra will handle starting the web server, do not enable if using rackup or other means.
[running] is the built-in server running now? do not change this setting!
[server] server or list of servers to use for built-in server. defaults to ['thin', 'mongrel', 'webrick'], order indicates priority.
[sessions] enable cookie based sessions support using Rack::Session::Cookie. See 'Using Sessions' section for more information.
[show_exceptions] show a stack trace in the browser when an exception happens. Enabled by default when environment is set to "development", disabled otherwise.
[static] Whether Sinatra should handle serving static files. Disable when using a Server able to do this on its own. Disabling will boost performance. Enabled per default in classic style, disabled for modular apps.
[static_cache_control] When Sinatra is serving static files, set this to add Cache-Control headers to the responses. Uses the +cache_control+ helper. Disabled by default. Use an explicit array when setting multiple values: set :static_cache_control, [:public, :max_age => 300]
[threaded] If set to +true+, will tell Thin to use EventMachine.defer for processing the request.
[views] Path to the views folder. Inferred from app_file setting if not set.
== Environments
There are three predefined +environments+: development, production and test. Environment can be set by RACK_ENV environment variable, and default value is development.
You can also run different environemnt using -e option:
ruby my_app.rb -e [ENVIRONMENT]
You can use predefinied methods: +development?+, +test?+ and +production?+, to check which enviroment is set.
+Developemnt+ is default setting. In this mode, all templates are being reloaded between requests. Special not_found and error handlers are installed for this enviroment, so you will see nice error page. In +production+ and +test+ templates are being cached.
== Error Handling
Error handlers run within the same context as routes and before filters, which means you get all the goodies it has to offer, like haml, erb, halt, etc.
=== Not Found
When a Sinatra::NotFound exception is raised, or the response's status code is 404, the not_found handler is invoked:
not_found do 'This is nowhere to be found.' end
=== Error
The +error+ handler is invoked any time an exception is raised from a route block or a filter. The exception object can be obtained from the sinatra.error Rack variable:
error do 'Sorry there was a nasty error - ' + env['sinatra.error'].name end
Custom errors:
error MyCustomError do 'So what happened was...' + env['sinatra.error'].message end
Then, if this happens:
get '/' do raise MyCustomError, 'something bad' end
You get this:
So what happened was... something bad
Alternatively, you can install an error handler for a status code:
error 403 do 'Access forbidden' end
get '/secret' do 403 end
Or a range:
error 400..510 do 'Boom' end
Sinatra installs special not_found and error handlers when running under the development environment.
== Rack Middleware
Sinatra rides on Rack[http://rack.rubyforge.org/], a minimal standard interface for Ruby web frameworks. One of Rack's most interesting capabilities for application developers is support for "middleware" -- components that sit between the server and your application monitoring and/or manipulating the HTTP request/response to provide various types of common functionality.
Sinatra makes building Rack middleware pipelines a cinch via a top-level +use+ method:
require 'sinatra' require 'my_custom_middleware'
use Rack::Lint use MyCustomMiddleware
get '/hello' do 'Hello World' end
The semantics of +use+ are identical to those defined for the Rack::Builder[http://rack.rubyforge.org/doc/classes/Rack/Builder.html] DSL (most frequently used from rackup files). For example, the +use+ method accepts multiple/variable args as well as blocks:
use Rack::Auth::Basic do |username, password| username == 'admin' && password == 'secret' end
Rack is distributed with a variety of standard middleware for logging, debugging, URL routing, authentication, and session handling. Sinatra uses many of these components automatically based on configuration so you typically don't have to +use+ them explicitly.
You can find useful middleware in {rack}[https://github.com/rack/rack/tree/master/lib/rack], {rack-contrib}[https://github.com/rack/rack-contrib#readme], with {CodeRack}[http://coderack.org/] or in the {Rack wiki}[https://github.com/rack/rack/wiki/List-of-Middleware].
== Testing
Sinatra tests can be written using any Rack-based testing library or framework. {Rack::Test}[http://rdoc.info/github/brynary/rack-test/master/frames] is recommended:
require 'my_sinatra_app' require 'test/unit' require 'rack/test'
class MyAppTest < Test::Unit::TestCase include Rack::Test::Methods
def app
Sinatra::Application
end
def test_my_default
get '/'
assert_equal 'Hello World!', last_response.body
end
def test_with_params
get '/meet', :name => 'Frank'
assert_equal 'Hello Frank!', last_response.body
end
def test_with_rack_env
get '/', {}, 'HTTP_USER_AGENT' => 'Songbird'
assert_equal "You're using Songbird!", last_response.body
end
end
== Sinatra::Base - Middleware, Libraries, and Modular Apps
Defining your app at the top-level works well for micro-apps but has considerable drawbacks when building reusable components such as Rack middleware, Rails metal, simple libraries with a server component, or even Sinatra extensions. The top-level DSL pollutes the Object namespace and assumes a micro-app style configuration (e.g., a single application file, ./public and ./views directories, logging, exception detail page, etc.). That's where Sinatra::Base comes into play:
require 'sinatra/base'
class MyApp < Sinatra::Base set :sessions, true set :foo, 'bar'
get '/' do
'Hello world!'
end
end
The methods available to Sinatra::Base subclasses are exactly as those available via the top-level DSL. Most top-level apps can be converted to Sinatra::Base components with two modifications:
Sinatra::Base is a blank slate. Most options are disabled by default, including the built-in server. See {Options and Configuration}[http://sinatra.github.com/configuration.html] for details on available options and their behavior.
=== Modular vs. Classic Style
Contrary to common belief, there is nothing wrong with classic style. If it suits your application, you do not have to switch to a modular application.
There are only two downsides compared with modular style:
You may only have one Sinatra application per Ruby process. If you plan to use more, switch to modular style.
Classic style pollutes Object with delegator methods. If you plan to ship your application in a library/gem, switch to modular style.
There is no reason you cannot mix modular and classic style.
If switching from one style to the other, you should be aware of slightly different default settings:
Setting Classic Modular
app_file file loading sinatra file subclassing Sinatra::Base run $0 == app_file false logging true false method_override true false inline_templates true false static true false
=== Serving a Modular Application
There are two common options for starting a modular app, actively starting with run!:
require 'sinatra/base'
class MyApp < Sinatra::Base
# start the server if ruby file executed directly
run! if app_file == $0
end
Start with:
ruby my_app.rb
Or with a config.ru, which allows using any Rack handler:
require './my_app' run MyApp
Run:
rackup -p 4567
=== Using a Classic Style Application with a config.ru
Write your app file:
require 'sinatra'
get '/' do 'Hello world!' end
And a corresponding config.ru:
require './app' run Sinatra::Application
=== When to use a config.ru?
Good signs you probably want to use a config.ru:
There is no need to switch to a config.ru only because you switched to modular style, and you don't have to use modular style for running with a config.ru.
=== Using Sinatra as Middleware
Not only is Sinatra able to use other Rack middleware, any Sinatra application can in turn be added in front of any Rack endpoint as middleware itself. This endpoint could be another Sinatra application, or any other Rack-based application (Rails/Ramaze/Camping/...):
require 'sinatra/base'
class LoginScreen < Sinatra::Base enable :sessions
get('/login') { haml :login }
post('/login') do
if params[:name] == 'admin' && params[:password] == 'admin'
session['user_name'] = params[:name]
else
redirect '/login'
end
end
end
class MyApp < Sinatra::Base
use LoginScreen
before do
unless session['user_name']
halt "Access denied, please <a href='/login'>login</a>."
end
end
get('/') { "Hello #{session['user_name']}." }
end
=== Dynamic Application Creation
Sometimes you want to create new applications at runtime without having to assign them to a constant, you can do this with Sinatra.new:
require 'sinatra/base' my_app = Sinatra.new { get('/') { "hi" } } my_app.run!
It takes the application to inherit from as optional argument:
require 'sinatra/base'
controller = Sinatra.new do enable :logging helpers MyHelpers end
map('/a') do run Sinatra.new(controller) { get('/') { 'a' } } end
map('/b') do run Sinatra.new(controller) { get('/') { 'b' } } end
This is especially useful for testing Sinatra extensions or using Sinatra in your own library.
This also makes using Sinatra as middleware extremely easy:
require 'sinatra/base'
use Sinatra do get('/') { ... } end
run RailsProject::Application
== Scopes and Binding
The scope you are currently in determines what methods and variables are available.
=== Application/Class Scope
Every Sinatra application corresponds to a subclass of Sinatra::Base. If you are using the top-level DSL (require 'sinatra'), then this class is Sinatra::Application, otherwise it is the subclass you created explicitly. At class level you have methods like +get+ or +before+, but you cannot access the +request+ object or the +session+, as there only is a single application class for all requests.
Options created via +set+ are methods at class level:
class MyApp < Sinatra::Base
# Hey, I'm in the application scope!
set :foo, 42
foo # => 42
get '/foo' do
# Hey, I'm no longer in the application scope!
end
end
You have the application scope binding inside:
You can reach the scope object (the class) like this:
=== Request/Instance Scope
For every incoming request, a new instance of your application class is created and all handler blocks run in that scope. From within this scope you can access the +request+ and +session+ object or call rendering methods like +erb+ or +haml+. You can access the application scope from within the request scope via the +settings+ helper:
class MyApp < Sinatra::Base
get '/define_route/:name' do
# Request scope for '/define_route/:name'
@value = 42
settings.get("/#{params[:name]}") do
# Request scope for "/#{params[:name]}"
@value # => nil (not the same request)
end
"Route defined!"
end
end
You have the request scope binding inside:
=== Delegation Scope
The delegation scope just forwards methods to the class scope. However, it does not behave 100% like the class scope, as you do not have the class binding. Only methods explicitly marked for delegation are available and you do not share variables/state with the class scope (read: you have a different +self+). You can explicitly add method delegations by calling Sinatra::Delegator.delegate :method_name.
You have the delegate scope binding inside:
Have a look at the code for yourself: here's the {Sinatra::Delegator mixin}[http://github.com/sinatra/sinatra/blob/ceac46f0bc129a6e994a06100aa854f606fe5992/lib/sinatra/base.rb#L1128] being {included into the main namespace}[http://github.com/sinatra/sinatra/blob/ceac46f0bc129a6e994a06100aa854f606fe5992/lib/sinatra/main.rb#L28].
== Command Line
Sinatra applications can be run directly:
ruby myapp.rb [-h] [-x] [-e ENVIRONMENT] [-p PORT] [-o HOST] [-s HANDLER]
Options are:
-h # help -p # set the port (default is 4567) -o # set the host (default is 0.0.0.0) -e # set the environment (default is development) -s # specify rack server/handler (default is thin) -x # turn on the mutex lock (default is off)
== Requirement
The following Ruby versions are officially supported:
[ Ruby 1.8.7 ] 1.8.7 is fully supported, however, if nothing is keeping you from it, we recommend upgrading to 1.9.2 or switching to JRuby or Rubinius. Support for 1.8.7 will not be dropped before Sinatra 2.0 and Ruby 2.0 except maybe for the unlikely event of 1.8.8 being released. Even then, we might continue supporting it. Ruby 1.8.6 is no longer supported. If you want to run with 1.8.6, downgrade to Sinatra 1.2, which will receive bug fixes until Sinatra 1.4.0 is released.
[ Ruby 1.9.2 ] 1.9.2 is fully supported and recommended. Note that Radius and Markaby are currently not 1.9 compatible. Do not use 1.9.2p0, it is known to cause segmentation faults when running Sinatra. Support will continue at least until the release of Ruby 1.9.4/2.0 and support for the latest 1.9 release will continue as long as it is still supported by the Ruby core team.
[ Ruby 1.9.3 ] 1.9.3 is fully supported. We recommend waiting for higher patch levels to be released (current one is p0) before using it in production. Please note that switching to 1.9.3 from an earlier version will invalidate all sessions.
[ Rubinius ] Rubinius is officially supported (Rubinius >= 1.2.4), everything, including all template languages, works. The upcoming 2.0 release is supported as well.
[ JRuby ] JRuby is officially supported (JRuby >= 1.6.5). No issues with third party template libraries are known, however, if you choose to use JRuby, please look into JRuby rack handlers, as the Thin web server is not fully supported on JRuby. JRuby's support for C extensions is still experimental, which only affects RDiscount, Redcarpet and RedCloth at the moment.
We also keep an eye on upcoming Ruby versions.
The following Ruby implementations are not officially supported but still are known to run Sinatra:
Not being officially supported means if things only break there and not on a supported platform, we assume it's not our issue but theirs.
We also run our CI against ruby-head (the upcoming 2.0.0) and the 1.9.4 branch, but we can't guarantee anything, since it is constantly moving. Expect both 1.9.4p0 and 2.0.0p0 to be supported.
Sinatra should work on any operating system supported by the chosen Ruby implementation.
You will not be able to run Sinatra on Cardinal, SmallRuby, BlueRuby or any Ruby version prior to 1.8.7 as of the time being.
== The Bleeding Edge
If you would like to use Sinatra's latest bleeding code, feel free to run your application against the master branch, it should be rather stable.
We also push out prerelease gems from time to time, so you can do a
gem install sinatra --pre
To get some of the latest features.
=== With Bundler
If you want to run your application with the latest Sinatra, using {Bundler}[http://gembundler.com/] is the recommended way.
First, install bundler, if you haven't:
gem install bundler
Then, in your project directory, create a +Gemfile+:
source :rubygems gem 'sinatra', :git => "git://github.com/sinatra/sinatra.git"
gem 'haml' # for instance, if you use haml gem 'activerecord', '~> 3.0' # maybe you also need ActiveRecord 3.x
Note that you will have to list all your applications dependencies in there. Sinatra's direct dependencies (Rack and Tilt) will, however, be automatically fetched and added by Bundler.
Now you can run your app like this:
bundle exec ruby myapp.rb
=== Roll Your Own
Create a local clone and run your app with the sinatra/lib directory on the $LOAD_PATH:
cd myapp git clone git://github.com/sinatra/sinatra.git ruby -Isinatra/lib myapp.rb
To update the Sinatra sources in the future:
cd myapp/sinatra git pull
=== Install Globally
You can build the gem on your own:
git clone git://github.com/sinatra/sinatra.git cd sinatra rake sinatra.gemspec rake install
If you install gems as root, the last step should be
sudo rake install
== Versioning
Sinatra follows {Semantic Versioning}[http://semver.org/], both SemVer and SemVerTag.
== Further Reading