Webmachine examples
Author: Basho Technologies
Keywords: webmachine http rest web

# webmachine

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### Webmachine examples

The simplest possible example is the one produced via the quickstart.

For an example of a read/write filesystem server showing several interesting features and supporting GET, PUT, DELETE, and POST, see demo_fs_resource.

For a very simple resource demonstrating content negotiation, basic auth, and some caching headers, see webmachine_demo_resource.

Some example code based on webmachine_demo_resource follows.

The simplest working resource could export only one function in addition to init/1:

    -module(webmachine_demo_resource).
    -export([init/1, to_html/2]).
    -include_lib("webmachine/include/webmachine.hrl").

    init([]) -> {ok, undefined}.

    to_html(ReqData, Context) -> {"Hello, new world", ReqData, Context}.

That's really it -- a working webmachine resource. That resource will respond to all valid GET requests with the exact same response.

Many interesting bits of HTTP are handled automatically by Webmachine. For instance, if a client sends a request to that trivial resource with an Accept header that does not allow for a text/html response, they will receive a 406 Not Acceptable.

Suppose I wanted to serve a plaintext client as well. I could note that I provide more than just HTML:

    content_types_provided(ReqData, Context) ->
       {[{"text/html", to_html},{"text/plain",to_text}], ReqData, Context}.

I already have my HTML representation produced, so I add a text one: (and while I'm at it, I'll show that it's trivial to produce dynamic content as well)

    to_text(ReqData, Context) ->
        Path = wrq:disp_path(ReqData),
        Body = io_lib:format("Hello ~s from webmachine.~n", [Path]),
        {Body, ReqData, Context}.

Now that this resource provides multiple media types, it automatically performs conneg:

    $ telnet localhost 8000
    Trying 127.0.0.1...
    Connected to localhost.
    Escape character is '^]'.
    GET /demo/a/resource/path HTTP/1.1
    Accept: text/plain

    HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    Vary: Accept
    Server: MochiWeb/1.1 WebMachine/0.97
    Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:54:02 GMT
    Content-Type: text/plain
    Content-Length: 39

    Hello a/resource/path from webmachine.

What about authorization? Webmachine resources default to assuming the client is authorized, but that can easily be overridden. Here's an overly simplistic but illustrative example:

    is_authorized(ReqData, Context) ->
        case wrq:disp_path(ReqData) of
            "authdemo" ->
                case wrq:get_req_header("authorization", ReqData) of
                    "Basic "++Base64 ->
                        Str = base64:mime_decode_to_string(Base64),
                        case string:tokens(Str, ":") of
                            ["authdemo", "demo1"] ->
                                {true, ReqData, Context};
                            _ ->
                                {"Basic realm=webmachine", ReqData, Context}
                        end;
                    _ ->
                        {"Basic realm=webmachine", ReqData, Context}
                end;
            _ -> {true, ReqData, Context}
        end.

With that function in the resource, all paths except `/authdemo` from this resource's root are authorized. For that one path, the UA will be asked to do basic authorization with the user/pass of authdemo/demo1. It should go without saying that this isn't quite the same function that we use in our real apps, but it is nice and simple.

If you've generated the application from the quickstart, make sure you've added this line to your dispatch.conf file:

    {["demo", '*'], mywebdemo_resource, []}.

Now you can point your browser at `http://localhost:8000/demo/authdemo` with the demo app running:

    $ curl -v http://localhost:8000/demo/authdemo
    > GET /demo/authdemo HTTP/1.1
    > Host: localhost:8000
    > Accept: */*
    >
    < HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
    < WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=webmachine
    < Server: MochiWeb/1.1 WebMachine/0.97
    < Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:57:43 GMT
    < Content-Length: 0

    <

    $ curl -v -u authdemo:demo1 http://localhost:8000/demo/authdemo
    * Server auth using Basic with user 'authdemo'
    > GET /demo/authdemo HTTP/1.1
    > Authorization: Basic YXV0aGRlbW86ZGVtbzE=
    > Host: localhost:8000
    > Accept: */*
    >
    < HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    < Vary: Accept
    < Server: MochiWeb/1.1 WebMachine/0.97

    < Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:59:02 GMT
    < Content-Type: text/html
    < Content-Length: 59
    <
    <html><body>Hello authdemo from webmachine.
    </body></html>

HTTP caching support is also quite easy, with functions allowing resources to define (e.g.) `last_modified`, `expires`, and `generate_etag.` For instance, since representations of this resource vary only by URI Path, I could use an extremely simple entity tag unfit for most real applications but sufficient for this example:

    generate_etag(ReqData, Context) -> {wrq:raw_path(ReqData), ReqData, Context}.

Similarly, here's a trivial expires rule:

    expires(ReqData, Context) -> {{{2021,1,1},{0,0,0}}, ReqData, Context}.

And now the response from our earlier request is appropriately tagged:

    HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    Vary: Accept
    Server: MochiWeb/1.1 WebMachine/0.97
    Expires: Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT
    ETag: /demo/authdemo
    Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:59:02 GMT
    Content-Type: text/html
    Content-Length: 59

    <html><body>Hello authdemo from webmachine.
    </body></html>

For more details, read the source of the resources linked at the top of this page.