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Top.postFields
author Adam Chlipala <adam@chlipala.net>
date Sat, 21 Jul 2012 15:16:57 -0400
parents d794149b3713
children bb942416bf1c
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1786:d794149b3713 1787:69daa6d70299
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2309 A web application is built from a series of modules, with one module, the last one appearing in the \texttt{.urp} file, designated as the main module. The signature of the main module determines the URL entry points to the application. Such an entry point should have type $\mt{t1} \to \ldots \to \mt{tn} \to \mt{transaction} \; \mt{page}$, for any integer $n \geq 0$, where $\mt{page}$ is a type synonym for top-level HTML pages, defined in $\mt{Basis}$. If such a function is at the top level of main module $M$, with $n = 0$, it will be accessible at URI \texttt{/M/f}, and so on for more deeply-nested functions, as described in Section \ref{tag} below. See Section \ref{cl} for information on the \texttt{prefix} and \texttt{rewrite url} directives, which can be used to rewrite the default URIs of different entry point functions. The final URL of a function is its default module-based URI, with \texttt{rewrite url} rules applied, and with the \texttt{prefix} prepended. Arguments to an entry-point function are deserialized from the part of the URI following \texttt{f}. 2309 A web application is built from a series of modules, with one module, the last one appearing in the \texttt{.urp} file, designated as the main module. The signature of the main module determines the URL entry points to the application. Such an entry point should have type $\mt{t1} \to \ldots \to \mt{tn} \to \mt{transaction} \; \mt{page}$, for any integer $n \geq 0$, where $\mt{page}$ is a type synonym for top-level HTML pages, defined in $\mt{Basis}$. If such a function is at the top level of main module $M$, with $n = 0$, it will be accessible at URI \texttt{/M/f}, and so on for more deeply-nested functions, as described in Section \ref{tag} below. See Section \ref{cl} for information on the \texttt{prefix} and \texttt{rewrite url} directives, which can be used to rewrite the default URIs of different entry point functions. The final URL of a function is its default module-based URI, with \texttt{rewrite url} rules applied, and with the \texttt{prefix} prepended. Arguments to an entry-point function are deserialized from the part of the URI following \texttt{f}.
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2311 Elements of modules beside the main module, including page handlers, will only be included in the final application if they are transitive dependencies of the handlers in the main module. 2311 Elements of modules beside the main module, including page handlers, will only be included in the final application if they are transitive dependencies of the handlers in the main module.
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2313 Normal links are accessible via HTTP \texttt{GET}, which the relevant standard says should never cause side effects. To export a page which may cause side effects, accessible only via HTTP \texttt{POST}, include one argument of the page handler of type $\mt{Basis.postBody}$. When the handler is called, this argument will receive a value that can be deconstructed into a MIME type (with $\mt{Basis.postType}$) and payload (with $\mt{Basis.postData}$). This kind of handler will only work with \texttt{POST} payloads of MIME types besides those associated with HTML forms; for these, use Ur/Web's built-in support, as described below. 2313 Normal links are accessible via HTTP \texttt{GET}, which the relevant standard says should never cause side effects. To export a page which may cause side effects, accessible only via HTTP \texttt{POST}, include one argument of the page handler of type $\mt{Basis.postBody}$. When the handler is called, this argument will receive a value that can be deconstructed into a MIME type (with $\mt{Basis.postType}$) and payload (with $\mt{Basis.postData}$). This kind of handler should not be used with forms that exist solely within Ur/Web apps; for these, use Ur/Web's built-in support, as described below. It may still be useful to use $\mt{Basis.postBody}$ with form requests submitted by code outside an Ur/Web app. For such cases, the function $\mt{Top.postFields} : \mt{postBody} \to \mt{list} \; (\mt{string} \times \mt{string})$ may be useful, breaking a \texttt{POST} body of type \texttt{application/x-www-form-urlencoded} into its name-value pairs.
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2315 Any normal page handler may also include arguments of type $\mt{option \; Basis.queryString}$, which will be handled specially. Rather than being deserialized from the current URI, such an argument is passed the whole query string that the handler received. The string may be analyzed by calling $\mt{Basis.show}$ on it. A handler of this kind may be passed as an argument to $\mt{Basis.effectfulUrl}$ to generate a URL to a page that may be used as a ``callback'' by an external service, such that the handler is allowed to cause side effects. 2315 Any normal page handler may also include arguments of type $\mt{option \; Basis.queryString}$, which will be handled specially. Rather than being deserialized from the current URI, such an argument is passed the whole query string that the handler received. The string may be analyzed by calling $\mt{Basis.show}$ on it. A handler of this kind may be passed as an argument to $\mt{Basis.effectfulUrl}$ to generate a URL to a page that may be used as a ``callback'' by an external service, such that the handler is allowed to cause side effects.
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2317 When the standalone web server receives a request for a known page, it calls the function for that page, ``running'' the resulting transaction to produce the page to return to the client. Pages link to other pages with the \texttt{link} attribute of the \texttt{a} HTML tag. A link has type $\mt{transaction} \; \mt{page}$, and the semantics of a link are that this transaction should be run to compute the result page, when the link is followed. Link targets are assigned URL names in the same way as top-level entry points. 2317 When the standalone web server receives a request for a known page, it calls the function for that page, ``running'' the resulting transaction to produce the page to return to the client. Pages link to other pages with the \texttt{link} attribute of the \texttt{a} HTML tag. A link has type $\mt{transaction} \; \mt{page}$, and the semantics of a link are that this transaction should be run to compute the result page, when the link is followed. Link targets are assigned URL names in the same way as top-level entry points.
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