HTTP Handlers

# About handlers

Crystal comes with a module HTTP::Handler, which is used as middleware for your HTTP Server stack. These are classes you create that include the HTTP::Handler module to process incoming requests and return responses.

# Built-in handlers

Lucky comes with some built-in handlers that you can see in your src/app_server.cr file under the middleware method. The order of this middleware stack is the order Lucky will send a web request with the first in the stack getting the initial request, and the last finishing out the stack.

By default when you generate a full application, your middleware stack will look like this:

def middleware : Array(HTTP::Handler)
  [
    Lucky::RequestIdHandler.new,
    Lucky::ForceSSLHandler.new,
    Lucky::HttpMethodOverrideHandler.new,
    Lucky::LogHandler.new,
    Lucky::ErrorHandler.new(action: Errors::Show),
    Lucky::RemoteIpHandler.new,
    Lucky::RouteHandler.new,
    Lucky::StaticCompressionHandler.new("./public", file_ext: "gz", content_encoding: "gzip"),
    Lucky::StaticFileHandler.new("./public", fallthrough: false, directory_listing: false),
    Lucky::RouteNotFoundHandler.new,
  ] of HTTP::Handler
end

The request object will start in the Lucky::RequestIdHandler, do some processing, then move on to the Lucky::ForceSSLHandler, and so on. In the Lucky::RouteHandler it will look for a Lucky::Action that matches the request, run any pipes, then run the action. If no action is found, we check to see if there’s a static file in Lucky::StaticFileHandler. Finally, if no route or file matches the request, we run the Lucky::RouteNotFoundHandler.

# RemoteIpHandler

The remote IP, or remote address, is the IP address of the user on your site. Getting this value can be helpful for things like banning spammers, tracking password sharing with user accounts, geo locating based on IP, and many other options.

This handler sets the HTTP::Request#remote_address value to the value of the first IP in the X-Forwarded-For header, or fallback to the default remote_address.

The remote_address method can be accessed in your actions from context.request.remote_address. Since this method returns Socket::IPAddress?, you may need to use the Crystal try method for accessing the client IP address string value.

# src/actions/home/index.cr
class Home::Index < BrowserAction
  get "/" do
    ip_address = context.request.remote_address.try(&.address) || "N/A"

    html IndexPage, ip_address: ip_address
  end
end

# Conditionally including handlers

There may be cases where you want a handler to be included only when certain conditions are met. For example, let’s say that we want to serve files from our /tmp directory in development and test environments, but not in production. This can be accomplished with a ternary statement and slight restructure of the middleware method in app_server.cr:

def middleware : Array(HTTP::Handler)
  [
    Lucky::RequestIdHandler.new,
    Lucky::ForceSSLHandler.new,
    Lucky::HttpMethodOverrideHandler.new,
    Lucky::LogHandler.new,
    Lucky::ErrorHandler.new(action: Errors::Show),
    Lucky::RemoteIpHandler.new,
    Lucky::RouteHandler.new,
    Lucky::StaticCompressionHandler.new("./public", file_ext: "br", content_encoding: "br"),
    Lucky::StaticCompressionHandler.new("./public", file_ext: "gz", content_encoding: "gzip"),
    Lucky::StaticFileHandler.new("./public", fallthrough: false, directory_listing: false),

    # Here is our new handler, which is `nil` when we're in production,
    # and a `StaticFileHandler` when we're in other environments.
    #
    # To make sure that `middleware` still returns only `HTTP::Handler`s,
    # we `select(HTTP::Handler)` when returning from this method.
    LuckyEnv.production? ? nil : Lucky::StaticFileHandler.new("./tmp", fallthrough: false, directory_listing: false),

    Lucky::RouteNotFoundHandler.new,
  ].select(HTTP::Handler)
end

# Creating custom handlers

Your application may have special requirements like routing legacy URLs, sending bug reporting, CORS, or even doing HTTP Basic auth while your app is in beta. Whatever your use case, creating a custom handler is really easy!

First we start off by creating a new directory where we can place all of our custom handlers. Create a src/handlers/ directory and be sure to require it src/app.cr.

Next, your handler needs 3 things:

1. It must include HTTP::Handler
2. It must define a call method with an argument of context : HTTP::Server::Context
3. It needs to call the call_next(context) to go to the next handler in the stack

# src/handlers/legacy_redirect_handler.cr
class LegacyRedirectHandler
  include HTTP::Handler
  LEGACY_ROUTES = {"/old-path" => "/new-path"}

  def call(context : HTTP::Server::Context)
    if new_path = LEGACY_ROUTES[context.request.path]?
      context.response.status_code = 301
      context.response.headers["Location"] = new_path
    else
      # Go to the next handler in the stack
      call_next(context)
    end
  end
end

Lastly, we need to make sure our new custom handler is in our stack. Open up src/app_server.cr and place a new instance in the stack!

# src/app_server.cr
#...
class App < Lucky::BaseAppServer
  def middleware
    [
      Lucky::HttpMethodOverrideHandler.new,
      Lucky::LogHandler.new,
      LegacyRedirectHandler.new,  # Add this line
      Lucky::ErrorHandler.new(action: Errors::Show),
      Lucky::RouteHandler.new,
      Lucky::StaticFileHandler.new("./public", false),
      Lucky::RouteNotFoundHandler.new,
    ]
  end
end

Note: The order of custom handlers will be completely up to you, but keep in mind the order Lucky placed the built-in handlers.