Need Function to return non-html data to client

[Uthedris]

I built a small app using Datastar.zig. While I can return a page with the HTTPRequest's html function. I could not use it send a (.css) style sheet successfully.

The html function does send the .css file to the client, the file is not recognized as CSS since the content type is "text/html" not "text/css".

Perhaps a more general function that allows the user to specify the content type would be helpful.

[zigster64]

How about

http.file(filename, mime-type)

That work for you for the general case ?

In the meantime, I’m building up middleware layers, and will bundle in a “file server” handler that does auto mime types

[Uthedris]

That would be fine, and I would be completely happy with it, but a function name something like "reply" or "replyFile" might be more descriptive or what it does.

[zigster64]

ok, made some updates to the main branch

• up into line with zig 0.16-2193
• cherry picked some important bug fixes from the dev branch into main. There were a few places in the code where it was using http.req.head.target (the URL path of the request) ... which works 99% of the time, but turns out that the memory where this is stored is not stable, as it gets re-used when additional reads happen on that request, such as reading the request body. This would lead to random crashes after running fine for a while. Applied that fix from dev into the main branch now.

Added these public functions to HTTPRequest

• http.css(content: []const u8) // where the CSS content is in a string

• http.data(content: []const u8, mime_type: []const u8) // any data type, where the content is in a string, you supply a mime type

• http.sendFile(filename: []const u8, mime_type: ?[]const u8)
  // just give it a filename, and optionally a mime type. If you set mime_type to null, it does its best to calculate the mime type based on the filename extension

Added an End2End test in tho example_1 app - there is now tab 11, that exercises various file types, and methods for referencing them

See how that goes, thanks

[zigster64]

actually ... http.data() does sound a bit dumb - would be better as http.sendData() so its symmetrical with http.sendFile() I think

Won't change it in this branch - will add it the dev branch im making changes to, and that will flow through to master when this next lot of work is done

[Uthedris]

Wonderful, thank you for being responsive.

[Uthedris]

Tested and works in my app.

Two minor nits: 1) The comment on the css function says text/html instead of text/css; 2) Since you added a function to returns type "text/css", you might consider a function that returns type "application/javascript" for symmetry.

[zigster64]

Great to hear, thanks

Happy to see people using this already :)

Buckle up - will be introducing some breaking changes soon, that will simplify setting up your app, and fix some more edge cases that you may not have hit yet. Expect this to continue for a while until 0.16 lands.

[Uthedris]

The joys of living on the bleeding edge.....