Routing

Server side routing refers to the ability of a web application to handle web requests using different functions, depending on URL path and HTTP method. Each BlackSheep application is bound to a router, which provides several ways to define routes. A function that is bound to a route is called "request handler", since its responsibility is to handle web requests and produce responses.

This page describes:

• How to define request handlers.
• How to use route parameters.
• How to define a catch-all route.
• How to define a fallback route.

Defining request handlers

A request handler is a function used to produce responses. To become request handlers, functions must be bound to a route, that represents a certain URL path pattern. The Router class provides several methods to define request handlers: with decorators (🗡️ in the table below) and without decorators (🛡️):

Router method	HTTP method	Type
head	HEAD	🗡️
get	GET	🗡️
post	POST	🗡️
put	PUT	🗡️
delete	DELETE	🗡️
trace	TRACE	🗡️
options	OPTIONS	🗡️
connect	CONNECT	🗡️
patch	PATCH	🗡️
add_head	HEAD	🛡️
add_get	GET	🛡️
add_post	POST	🛡️
add_put	PUT	🛡️
add_delete	DELETE	🛡️
add_trace	TRACE	🛡️
add_options	OPTIONS	🛡️
add_connect	CONNECT	🛡️
add_patch	PATCH	🛡️

With decorators

The following example shows how to define a request handler for the root path of a web application "/":

from blacksheep import Application, text

app = Application(show_error_details=True)


@app.router.get("/")
def hello_world():
    return "Hello World"

It is possible to assign router methods to variables, to reduce code verbosity:

from blacksheep import Application, text

app = Application(show_error_details=True)
get = app.router.get
post = app.router.post


@get("/")
def hello_world():
    return "Hello World"


@post("/message")
def create_message(text: str):
    return "TODO"

Alternatively, the application offers a route method:

@app.route("/foo")
async def example_foo():
    # HTTP GET /foo
    return "Hello, World!"


@app.route("/example", methods=["GET", "HEAD", "TRACE"])
async def example():
    # HTTP GET /example
    # HTTP HEAD /example
    # HTTP TRACE /example
    return "Hello, World!"

Without decorators

Request handlers can be registered without decorators:

def hello_world():
    return "Hello World"


app.router.add_get("/", hello_world)
app.router.add_options("/", hello_world)

Request handlers as class methods

Request handlers can also be configured as class methods, defining classes that inherit the blacksheep.server.controllers.Controller class (name taken from the MVC architecture):

from dataclasses import dataclass

from blacksheep import Application, text, json
from blacksheep.server.controllers import Controller, get, post


app = Application()


# example input contract:
@dataclass
class CreateFooInput:
    name: str
    nice: bool


class Home(Controller):

    def greet(self):
        return "Hello World"

    @get("/")
    async def index(self):
        # HTTP GET /
        return text(self.greet())

    @get("/foo")
    async def foo(self):
        # HTTP GET /foo
        return json({"id": 1, "name": "foo", "nice": True})

    @post("/foo")
    async def create_foo(self, foo: CreateFooInput):
        # HTTP POST /foo
        # with foo instance automatically injected parsing the request body as JSON
        # if the value cannot be parsed as CreateFooInput, Bad Request is returned automatically
        return json({"status": True})

Route parameters

BlackSheep supports three ways to define route parameters:

• "/:example" - using a single colon after a slash
• "/{example}" - using curly braces
• "/<example>" - using angle brackets (i.e. Flask notation)

Route parameters can be read from request.route_values, or injected automatically by request handler's function signature:

@get("/{example}")
def handler(request):
    # reading route values from the request object:
    value = request.route_values["example"]

    return text(value)


@get("/api/cats/{cat_id}")
def get_cat(cat_id):
    # cat_id is injected automatically
    ...

It is also possible to specify the expected type, using standard typing annotations:

@get("/api/cats/{cat_id}")
def get_cat(cat_id: int):
    ...

from uuid import UUID


@get("/api/cats/{cat_id}")
def get_cat(cat_id: UUID):
    ...

In this case, BlackSheep will automatically produce an HTTP 400 Bad Request response if the input cannot be parsed into the expected type, producing a response body similar to this one:

Bad Request: Invalid value ['asdas'] for parameter `cat_id`; expected a valid
UUID.

Value patterns

By default, route parameters are matched by any string until the next slash "/" character. Having the following route:

@get("/api/movies/{movie_id}/actors/{actor_id}")
def get_movie_actor_details(movie_id: str, actor_id: str):
    ...

HTTP GET requests having the following paths are all matched:

/api/movies/12345/actors/200587

/api/movies/Trading-Places/actors/Denholm-Elliott

/api/movies/b5317165-ad31-47e2-8a2d-42dba8619b31/actors/a601d8f2-a1ab-4f20-aebf-60eda8e89df0

However, the framework supports more granular control on the expected value pattern. For example, to specify that movie_id and actor_id must be integers, it is possible to define route parameters this way:

"/api/movies/{int:movie_id}/actors/{int:actor_id}"

Warning

Value patterns only affect the regular expression used to match requests' URLs. They don't affect the type of the parameter after a web request is matched. Use type annotations as described above to enforce types of the variables as they are passed to the request handler.

The following value patterns are built-in:

Value pattern	Description
str	Any value that doesn't contain a slash "/".
int	Any value that contains only numeric characters.
float	Any value that contains only numeric characters and eventually a dot with digits.
path	Any value to the end of the path.
uuid	Any value that matches the UUID value pattern.

To define custom value patterns, extend the Route.value_patterns dictionary. The key of the dictionary is the name used by the parameter, while the value is a regular expression used to match the parameter's fragment. For example, to define a custom value pattern for route parameters composed of exactly two letters between a-z and A-Z:

Route.value_patterns["example"] = r"[a-zA-Z]{2}"

And then use it in routes:

"/{example:foo}"

Catch-all routes

To define a catch-all route that will match every request, use a route parameter with path value pattern, like:

• {path:name}, or <path:name>

from blacksheep import text


@get("/catch-all/{path:sub_path}")
def catch_all(sub_path: str):
    return text(sub_path)

For example, a request at /catch-all/anything/really.js would be matched by the route above, and the sub_path value would be anything/really.js.

It is also possible to define a catch-all route using a star sign *. To read the portion of the path catched by the star sign from the request object, read the "tail" property of request.route_values. But in this case the value of the catched path can only be read from the request object.

@get("/catch-all/*")
def catch_all(request):
    sub_path = request.route_values["tail"]

Defining a fallback route

To define a fallback route that handles web requests not handled by any other route, use app.router.fallback:

def fallback():
    return "OOPS! Nothing was found here!"


app.router.fallback = fallback

Last modified on: 2023-04-14 19:58:39

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