--- title: Serving an API toc: true --- Enough chit-chat about type-level combinators and representing an API as a type. Can we have a webservice already? If you want to follow along with the code and run the examples while you read this guide: ``` bash cabal get servant-examples cd servant-examples- cabal sandbox init cabal install --dependencies-only cabal configure && cabal build ``` This will produce a `tutorial` executable in the `dist/build/tutorial` directory that just runs the example corresponding to the number specified as a command line argument: ``` bash $ dist/build/tutorial/tutorial Usage: tutorial N where N is the number of the example you want to run. ``` A first example =============== Equipped with some basic knowledge about the way we represent API, let's now write our first webservice. The source for this tutorial section is a literate haskell file, so first we need to have some language extensions and imports: ``` haskell {-# LANGUAGE DataKinds #-} {-# LANGUAGE DeriveGeneric #-} {-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances #-} {-# LANGUAGE GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving #-} {-# LANGUAGE MultiParamTypeClasses #-} {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-} {-# LANGUAGE ScopedTypeVariables #-} {-# LANGUAGE TypeOperators #-} module Server where import Control.Monad.IO.Class import Control.Monad.Reader import Control.Monad.Trans.Either import Data.Aeson import Data.Aeson.Types import Data.Attoparsec.ByteString import Data.ByteString (ByteString) import Data.Int import Data.List import Data.String.Conversions import Data.Time.Calendar import GHC.Generics import Lucid import Network.HTTP.Media ((//), (/:)) import Network.Wai import Network.Wai.Handler.Warp import Servant import System.Directory import Text.Blaze import Text.Blaze.Html.Renderer.Utf8 import qualified Data.Aeson.Parser import qualified Text.Blaze.Html ``` ``` haskell ignore {-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies #-} ``` **Important**: the `Servant` module comes from the *servant-server* package, the one that lets us run webservers that implement a particular API type. It reexports all the types from the *servant* package that let you declare API types as well as everything you need to turn your request handlers into a fully-fledged webserver. This means that in your applications, you can just add *servant-server* as a dependency, import `Servant` and not worry about anything else. We will write a server that will serve the following API. ``` haskell type UserAPI1 = "users" :> Get '[JSON] [User] ``` Here's what we would like to see when making a GET request to `/users`. ``` javascript [ {"name": "Isaac Newton", "age": 372, "email": "isaac@newton.co.uk", "registration_date": "1683-03-01"} , {"name": "Albert Einstein", "age": 136, "email": "ae@mc2.org", "registration_date": "1905-12-01"} ] ``` Now let's define our `User` data type and write some instances for it. ``` haskell data User = User { name :: String , age :: Int , email :: String , registration_date :: Day } deriving (Eq, Show, Generic) instance ToJSON User ``` Nothing funny going on here. But we now can define our list of two users. ``` haskell users1 :: [User] users1 = [ User "Isaac Newton" 372 "isaac@newton.co.uk" (fromGregorian 1683 3 1) , User "Albert Einstein" 136 "ae@mc2.org" (fromGregorian 1905 12 1) ] ``` Let's also write our API type. ``` haskell ignore type UserAPI1 = "users" :> Get '[JSON] [User] ``` We can now take care of writing the actual webservice that will handle requests to such an API. This one will be very simple, being reduced to just a single endpoint. The type of the web application is determined by the API type, through a *type family* named `Server`. (Type families are just functions that take types as input and return types.) The `Server` type family will compute the right type that a bunch of request handlers should have just from the corresponding API type. The first thing to know about the `Server` type family is that behind the scenes it will drive the routing, letting you focus only on the business logic. The second thing to know is that for each endpoint, your handlers will by default run in the `EitherT ServantErr IO` monad. This is overridable very easily, as explained near the end of this guide. Third thing, the type of the value returned in that monad must be the same as the second argument of the HTTP method combinator used for the corresponding endpoint. In our case, it means we must provide a handler of type `EitherT ServantErr IO [User]`. Well, we have a monad, let's just `return` our list: ``` haskell server1 :: Server UserAPI1 server1 = return users1 ``` That's it. Now we can turn `server` into an actual webserver using [wai](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/wai) and [warp](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/warp): ``` haskell userAPI :: Proxy UserAPI1 userAPI = Proxy -- 'serve' comes from servant and hands you a WAI Application, -- which you can think of as an "abstract" web application, -- not yet a webserver. app1 :: Application app1 = serve userAPI server1 ``` The `userAPI` bit is, alas, boilerplate (we need it to guide type inference). But that's about as much boilerplate as you get. And we're done! Let's run our webservice on the port 8081. ``` haskell main :: IO () main = run 8081 app1 ``` You can put this all into a file or just grab [servant's repo](http://github.com/haskell-servant/servant) and look at the *servant-examples* directory. The code we have just explored is in *tutorial/T1.hs*, runnable with `dist/build/tutorial/tutorial 1`. If you run it, you can go to `http://localhost:8081/users` in your browser or query it with curl and you see: ``` bash $ curl http://localhost:8081/users [{"email":"isaac@newton.co.uk","registration_date":"1683-03-01","age":372,"name":"Isaac Newton"},{"email":"ae@mc2.org","registration_date":"1905-12-01","age":136,"name":"Albert Einstein"}] ``` More endpoints ============== What if we want more than one endpoint? Let's add `/albert` and `/isaac` to view the corresponding users encoded in JSON. ``` haskell type UserAPI2 = "users" :> Get '[JSON] [User] :<|> "albert" :> Get '[JSON] User :<|> "isaac" :> Get '[JSON] User ``` And let's adapt our code a bit. ``` haskell isaac :: User isaac = User "Isaac Newton" 372 "isaac@newton.co.uk" (fromGregorian 1683 3 1) albert :: User albert = User "Albert Einstein" 136 "ae@mc2.org" (fromGregorian 1905 12 1) users2 :: [User] users2 = [isaac, albert] ``` Now, just like we separate the various endpoints in `UserAPI` with `:<|>`, we are going to separate the handlers with `:<|>` too! They must be provided in the same order as the one they appear in in the API type. ``` haskell server2 :: Server UserAPI2 server2 = return users2 :<|> return albert :<|> return isaac ``` And that's it! You can run this example with `dist/build/tutorial/tutorial 2` and check out the data available at `/users`, `/albert` and `/isaac`. From combinators to handler arguments ===================================== Fine, we can write trivial webservices easily, but none of the two above use any "fancy" combinator from servant. Let's address this and use `QueryParam`, `Capture` and `ReqBody` right away. You'll see how each occurence of these combinators in an endpoint makes the corresponding handler receive an argument of the appropriate type automatically. You don't have to worry about manually looking up URL captures or query string parameters, or decoding/encoding data from/to JSON. Never. We are going to use the following data types and functions to implement a server for `API`. ``` haskell type API = "position" :> Capture "x" Int :> Capture "y" Int :> Get '[JSON] Position :<|> "hello" :> QueryParam "name" String :> Get '[JSON] HelloMessage :<|> "marketing" :> ReqBody '[JSON] ClientInfo :> Post '[JSON] Email data Position = Position { x :: Int , y :: Int } deriving Generic instance ToJSON Position newtype HelloMessage = HelloMessage { msg :: String } deriving Generic instance ToJSON HelloMessage data ClientInfo = ClientInfo { clientName :: String , clientEmail :: String , clientAge :: Int , clientInterestedIn :: [String] } deriving Generic instance FromJSON ClientInfo instance ToJSON ClientInfo data Email = Email { from :: String , to :: String , subject :: String , body :: String } deriving Generic instance ToJSON Email emailForClient :: ClientInfo -> Email emailForClient c = Email from' to' subject' body' where from' = "great@company.com" to' = clientEmail c subject' = "Hey " ++ clientName c ++ ", we miss you!" body' = "Hi " ++ clientName c ++ ",\n\n" ++ "Since you've recently turned " ++ show (clientAge c) ++ ", have you checked out our latest " ++ intercalate ", " (clientInterestedIn c) ++ " products? Give us a visit!" ``` We can implement handlers for the three endpoints: ``` haskell server3 :: Server API server3 = position :<|> hello :<|> marketing where position :: Int -> Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO Position position x y = return (Position x y) hello :: Maybe String -> EitherT ServantErr IO HelloMessage hello mname = return . HelloMessage $ case mname of Nothing -> "Hello, anonymous coward" Just n -> "Hello, " ++ n marketing :: ClientInfo -> EitherT ServantErr IO Email marketing clientinfo = return (emailForClient clientinfo) ``` Did you see that? The types for your handlers changed to be just what we needed! In particular: - a `Capture "something" a` becomes an argument of type `a` (for `position`); - a `QueryParam "something" a` becomes an argument of type `Maybe a` (because an endpoint can technically be accessed without specifying any query string parameter, we decided to "force" handlers to be aware that the parameter might not always be there); - a `ReqBody contentTypeList a` becomes an argument of type `a`; And that's it. You can see this example in action by running `dist/build/tutorial/tutorial 3`. ``` bash $ curl http://localhost:8081/position/1/2 {"x":1,"y":2} $ curl http://localhost:8081/hello {"msg":"Hello, anonymous coward"} $ curl http://localhost:8081/hello?name=Alp {"msg":"Hello, Alp"} $ curl -X POST -d '{"name":"Alp Mestanogullari", "email" : "alp@foo.com", "age": 25, "interested_in": ["haskell", "mathematics"]}' -H 'Accept: application/json' -H 'Content-type: application/json' http://localhost:8081/marketing {"subject":"Hey Alp Mestanogullari, we miss you!","body":"Hi Alp Mestanogullari,\n\nSince you've recently turned 25, have you checked out our latest haskell, mathematics products? Give us a visit!","to":"alp@foo.com","from":"great@company.com"} ``` For reference, here's a list of some combinators from *servant* and for those that get turned into arguments to the handlers, the type of the argument. > - `Delete`, `Get`, `Patch`, `Post`, `Put`: these do not become arguments. They provide the return type of handlers, which usually is `EitherT ServantErr IO `. > - `Capture "something" a` becomes an argument of type `a`. > - `QueryParam "something" a`, `MatrixParam "something" a`, `Header "something" a` all become arguments of type `Maybe a`, because there might be no value at all specified by the client for these. > - `QueryFlag "something"` and `MatrixFlag "something"` get turned into arguments of type `Bool`. > - `QueryParams "something" a` and `MatrixParams "something" a` get turned into arguments of type `[a]`. > - `ReqBody contentTypes a` gets turned into an argument of type `a`. The `FromText`/`ToText` classes =============================== Wait... How does *servant* know how to decode the `Int`s from the URL? Or how to decode a `ClientInfo` value from the request body? This is what this and the following two sections address. `Capture`s and `QueryParam`s are represented by some textual value in URLs. `Header`s are similarly represented by a pair of a header name and a corresponding (textual) value in the request's "metadata". This is why we decided to provide a pair of typeclasses, `FromText` and `ToText` which just let you say that you can respectively *extract* or *encode* values of some type *from*/*to* text. Here are the definitions: ``` haskell ignore class FromText a where fromText :: Text -> Maybe a class ToText a where toText :: a -> Text ``` And as long as the type that a `Capture`/`QueryParam`/`Header`/etc will be decoded to provides a `FromText` instance, it will Just Work. *servant* provides a decent number of instances, but here are some examples of defining your own. ``` haskell -- A typical enumeration data Direction = Up | Down | Left | Right instance FromText Direction where -- requires {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-} fromText "up" = Just Up fromText "down" = Just Down fromText "left" = Just Server.Left fromText "right" = Just Server.Right fromText _ = Nothing instance ToText Direction where toText Up = "up" toText Down = "down" toText Server.Left = "left" toText Server.Right = "right" newtype UserId = UserId Int64 deriving (FromText, ToText) ``` or writing the instances by hand: ``` haskell ignore instance FromText UserId where fromText = fmap UserId fromText instance ToText UserId where toText (UserId i) = toText i ``` There's not much else to say about these classes. You will need instances for them when using `Capture`, `QueryParam`, `QueryParams`, `MatrixParam`, `MatrixParams` and `Header` with your types. You will need `FromText` instances for server-side request handlers and `ToText` instances only when using *servant-client*, as described in the [section about deriving haskell functions to query an API](/tutorial/client.html). Using content-types with your data types ======================================== The same principle was operating when decoding request bodies from JSON, and responses *into* JSON. (JSON is just the running example - you can do this with any content-type.) This section introduces a couple of typeclasses provided by *servant* that make all of this work. The truth behind `JSON` ----------------------- What exactly is `JSON`? Like the 3 other content types provided out of the box by *servant*, it's a really dumb data type. ``` haskell ignore data JSON data PlainText data FormUrlEncoded data OctetStream ``` Obviously, this is not all there is to `JSON`, otherwise it would be quite pointless. Like most of the data types in *servant*, `JSON` is mostly there as a special *symbol* that's associated with encoding (resp. decoding) to (resp. from) the *JSON* format. The way this association is performed can be decomposed into two steps. The first step is to provide a proper [`MediaType`](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/http-media-0.6.2/docs/Network-HTTP-Media.html) representation for `JSON`, or for your own content types. If you look at the haddocks from this link, you can see that we just have to specify `application/json` using the appropriate functions. In our case, we can just use `(//) :: ByteString -> ByteString -> MediaType`. The precise way to specify the `MediaType` is to write an instance for the `Accept` class: ``` haskell ignore -- for reference: class Accept ctype where contentType :: Proxy ctype -> MediaType instance Accept JSON where contentType _ = "application" // "json" ``` The second step is centered around the `MimeRender` and `MimeUnrender` classes. These classes just let you specify a way to respectively encode and decode values respectively into or from your content-type's representation. ``` haskell ignore class Accept ctype => MimeRender ctype a where mimeRender :: Proxy ctype -> a -> ByteString -- alternatively readable as: mimeRender :: Proxy ctype -> (a -> ByteString) ``` Given a content-type and some user type, `MimeRender` provides a function that encodes values of type `a` to lazy `ByteString`s. In the case of `JSON`, this is easily dealt with! For any type `a` with a `ToJSON` instance, we can render values of that type to JSON using `Data.Aeson.encode`. ``` haskell ignore instance ToJSON a => MimeRender JSON a where mimeRender _ = encode ``` And now the `MimeUnrender` class, which lets us extract values from lazy `ByteString`s, alternatively failing with an error string. ``` haskell ignore class Accept ctype => MimeUnrender ctype a where mimeUnrender :: Proxy ctype -> ByteString -> Either String a -- alternatively: mimeUnrender :: Proxy ctype -> (ByteString -> Either String a) ``` We don't have much work to do there either, `Data.Aeson.eitherDecode` is precisely what we need. However, it only allows arrays and objects as toplevel JSON values and this has proven to get in our way more than help us so we wrote our own little function around *aeson* and *attoparsec* that allows any type of JSON value at the toplevel of a "JSON document". Here's the definition in case you are curious. ``` haskell eitherDecodeLenient :: FromJSON a => ByteString -> Either String a eitherDecodeLenient input = do v :: Value <- parseOnly (Data.Aeson.Parser.value <* endOfInput) (cs input) parseEither parseJSON v ``` This function is exactly what we need for our `MimeUnrender` instance. ``` haskell ignore instance FromJSON a => MimeUnrender JSON a where mimeUnrender _ = eitherDecodeLenient ``` And this is all the code that lets you use `JSON` for with `ReqBody`, `Get`, `Post` and friends. We can check our understanding by implementing support for an `HTML` content type, so that users of your webservice can access an HTML representation of the data they want, ready to be included in any HTML document, e.g. using [jQuery's `load` function](https://api.jquery.com/load/), simply by adding `Accept: text/html` to their request headers. Case-studies: *servant-blaze* and *servant-lucid* ------------------------------------------------- These days, most of the haskellers who write their HTML UIs directly from Haskell use either [blaze-html](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/blaze-html) or [lucid](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/lucid). The best option for *servant* is obviously to support both (and hopefully other templating solutions!). ``` haskell data HTMLLucid ``` Once again, the data type is just there as a symbol for the encoding/decoding functions, except that this time we will only worry about encoding since *blaze-html* and *lucid* don't provide a way to extract data from HTML. Both packages also have the same `Accept` instance for their `HTMLLucid` type. ``` haskell instance Accept HTMLLucid where contentType _ = "text" // "html" /: ("charset", "utf-8") ``` Note that this instance uses the `(/:)` operator from *http-media* which lets us specify additional information about a content-type, like the charset here. The rendering instances for both packages both call similar functions that take types with an appropriate instance to an "abstract" HTML representation and then write that to a `ByteString`. For *lucid*: ``` haskell instance ToHtml a => MimeRender HTMLLucid a where mimeRender _ = renderBS . toHtml -- let's also provide an instance for lucid's -- 'Html' wrapper. instance MimeRender HTMLLucid (Html a) where mimeRender _ = renderBS ``` For *blaze-html*: ``` haskell -- For this tutorial to compile 'HTMLLucid' and 'HTMLBlaze' have to be -- distinct. Usually you would stick to one html rendering library and then -- you can go with one 'HTML' type. data HTMLBlaze instance Accept HTMLBlaze where contentType _ = "text" // "html" /: ("charset", "utf-8") instance ToMarkup a => MimeRender HTMLBlaze a where mimeRender _ = renderHtml . Text.Blaze.Html.toHtml -- while we're at it, just like for lucid we can -- provide an instance for rendering blaze's 'Html' type instance MimeRender HTMLBlaze Text.Blaze.Html.Html where mimeRender _ = renderHtml ``` Both [servant-blaze](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/servant-blaze) and [servant-lucid](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/servant-lucid) let you use `HTMLLucid` in any content type list as long as you provide an instance of the appropriate class (`ToMarkup` for *blaze-html*, `ToHtml` for *lucid*). We can now write webservice that uses *servant-lucid* to show the `HTMLLucid` content type in action. First off, imports and pragmas as usual. We will be serving the following API: ``` haskell type PersonAPI = "persons" :> Get '[JSON, HTMLLucid] [Person] ``` where `Person` is defined as follows: ``` haskell data Person = Person { firstName :: String , lastName :: String } deriving Generic -- for the JSON instance instance ToJSON Person ``` Now, let's teach *lucid* how to render a `Person` as a row in a table, and then a list of `Person`s as a table with a row per person. ``` haskell -- HTML serialization of a single person instance ToHtml Person where toHtml person = tr_ $ do td_ (toHtml $ firstName person) td_ (toHtml $ lastName person) -- do not worry too much about this toHtmlRaw = toHtml -- HTML serialization of a list of persons instance ToHtml [Person] where toHtml persons = table_ $ do tr_ $ do th_ "first name" th_ "last name" -- this just calls toHtml on each person of the list -- and concatenates the resulting pieces of HTML together foldMap toHtml persons toHtmlRaw = toHtml ``` We create some `Person` values and serve them as a list: ``` haskell persons :: [Person] persons = [ Person "Isaac" "Newton" , Person "Albert" "Einstein" ] personAPI :: Proxy PersonAPI personAPI = Proxy server4 :: Server PersonAPI server4 = return persons app2 :: Application app2 = serve personAPI server4 ``` And we're good to go. You can run this example with `dist/build/tutorial/tutorial 4`. ``` bash $ curl http://localhost:8081/persons [{"lastName":"Newton","firstName":"Isaac"},{"lastName":"Einstein","firstName":"Albert"}] $ curl -H 'Accept: text/html' http://localhost:8081/persons
first namelast name
IsaacNewton
AlbertEinstein
# or just point your browser to http://localhost:8081/persons ``` The `EitherT ServantErr IO` monad ================================= At the heart of the handlers is the monad they run in, namely `EitherT ServantErr IO`. One might wonder: why this monad? The answer is that it is the simplest monad with the following properties: - it lets us both return a successful result (with the `Right` branch of `Either`) or "fail" with a descriptive error (with the `Left` branch of `Either`); - it lets us perform IO, which is absolutely vital since most webservices exist as interfaces to databases that we interact with in `IO`; Let's recall some definitions. ``` haskell ignore -- from the Prelude data Either e a = Left e | Right a -- from the 'either' package at -- http://hackage.haskell.org/package/either-4.3.3.2/docs/Control-Monad-Trans-Either.html newtype EitherT e m a = EitherT { runEitherT :: m (Either e a) } ``` In short, this means that a handler of type `EitherT ServantErr IO a` is simply equivalent to a computation of type `IO (Either ServantErr a)`, that is, an IO action that either returns an error or a result. The aforementioned `either` package is worth taking a look at. Perhaps most importantly: ``` haskell ignore left :: Monad m => e -> EitherT e m a ``` Allows you to return an error from your handler (whereas `return` is enough to return a success). Most of what you'll be doing in your handlers is running some IO and, depending on the result, you might sometimes want to throw an error of some kind and abort early. The next two sections cover how to do just that. Performing IO ------------- Another important instance from the list above is `MonadIO m => MonadIO (EitherT e m)`. [`MonadIO`](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/transformers-0.4.3.0/docs/Control-Monad-IO-Class.html) is a class from the *transformers* package defined as: ``` haskell ignore class Monad m => MonadIO m where liftIO :: IO a -> m a ``` Obviously, the `IO` monad provides a `MonadIO` instance. Hence for any type `e`, `EitherT e IO` has a `MonadIO` instance. So if you want to run any kind of IO computation in your handlers, just use `liftIO`: ``` haskell type IOAPI1 = "myfile.txt" :> Get '[JSON] FileContent newtype FileContent = FileContent { content :: String } deriving Generic instance ToJSON FileContent server5 :: Server IOAPI1 server5 = do filecontent <- liftIO (readFile "myfile.txt") return (FileContent filecontent) ``` Failing, through `ServantErr` ----------------------------- If you want to explicitly fail at providing the result promised by an endpoint using the appropriate HTTP status code (not found, unauthorized, etc) and some error message, all you have to do is use the `left` function mentioned above and provide it with the appropriate value of type `ServantErr`, which is defined as: ``` haskell ignore data ServantErr = ServantErr { errHTTPCode :: Int , errReasonPhrase :: String , errBody :: ByteString -- lazy bytestring , errHeaders :: [Header] } ``` Many standard values are provided out of the box by the `Servant.Server` module. If you want to use these values but add a body or some headers, just use record update syntax: ``` haskell failingHandler :: EitherT ServantErr IO () failingHandler = left myerr where myerr :: ServantErr myerr = err503 { errBody = "Sorry dear user." } ``` Here's an example where we return a customised 404-Not-Found error message in the response body if "myfile.txt" isn't there: ``` haskell server6 :: Server IOAPI1 server6 = do exists <- liftIO (doesFileExist "myfile.txt") if exists then liftIO (readFile "myfile.txt") >>= return . FileContent else left custom404Err where custom404Err = err404 { errBody = "myfile.txt just isn't there, please leave this server alone." } ``` Let's run this server (`dist/build/tutorial/tutorial 5`) and query it, first without the file and then with the file. ``` bash $ curl --verbose http://localhost:8081/myfile.txt [snip] * Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 8081 (#0) > GET /myfile.txt HTTP/1.1 > User-Agent: curl/7.30.0 > Host: localhost:8081 > Accept: */* > < HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found [snip] myfile.txt just isnt there, please leave this server alone. $ echo Hello > myfile.txt $ curl --verbose http://localhost:8081/myfile.txt [snip] * Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 8081 (#0) > GET /myfile.txt HTTP/1.1 > User-Agent: curl/7.30.0 > Host: localhost:8081 > Accept: */* > < HTTP/1.1 200 OK [snip] < Content-Type: application/json [snip] {"content":"Hello\n"} ``` Response headers ================ To add headers to your response, use [addHeader](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/servant-0.4.4/docs/Servant-API-ResponseHeaders.html). Note that this changes the type of your API, as we can see in the following example: ``` haskell type MyHandler = Get '[JSON] (Headers '[Header "X-An-Int" Int] User) myHandler :: Server MyHandler myHandler = return $ addHeader 1797 albert ``` Serving static files ==================== *servant-server* also provides a way to just serve the content of a directory under some path in your web API. As mentioned earlier in this document, the `Raw` combinator can be used in your APIs to mean "plug here any WAI application". Well, servant-server provides a function to get a file and directory serving WAI application, namely: ``` haskell ignore -- exported by Servant and Servant.Server serveDirectory :: FilePath -> Server Raw ``` `serveDirectory`'s argument must be a path to a valid directory. You can see an example below, runnable with `dist/build/tutorial/tutorial 6` (you **must** run it from within the *servant-examples/* directory!), which is a webserver that serves the various bits of code covered in this getting-started. The API type will be the following. ``` haskell type CodeAPI = "code" :> Raw ``` And the server: ``` haskell codeAPI :: Proxy CodeAPI codeAPI = Proxy ``` ``` haskell server7 :: Server CodeAPI server7 = serveDirectory "tutorial" app3 :: Application app3 = serve codeAPI server7 ``` This server will match any request whose path starts with `/code` and will look for a file at the path described by the rest of the request path, inside the *tutorial/* directory of the path you run the program from. In other words: - If a client requests `/code/foo.txt`, the server will look for a file at `./tutorial/foo.txt` (and fail) - If a client requests `/code/T1.hs`, the server will look for a file at `./tutorial/T1.hs` (and succeed) - If a client requests `/code/foo/bar/baz/movie.mp4`, the server will look for a file at `./tutorial/foo/bar/baz/movie.mp4` (and fail) Here is our little server in action. ``` haskell ignore $ curl http://localhost:8081/code/T1.hs {-# LANGUAGE DataKinds #-} {-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies #-} {-# LANGUAGE DeriveGeneric #-} {-# LANGUAGE TypeOperators #-} module T1 where import Data.Aeson import Data.Time.Calendar import GHC.Generics import Network.Wai import Servant data User = User { name :: String , age :: Int , email :: String , registration_date :: Day } deriving (Eq, Show, Generic) -- orphan ToJSON instance for Day. necessary to derive one for User instance ToJSON Day where -- display a day in YYYY-mm-dd format toJSON d = toJSON (showGregorian d) instance ToJSON User type UserAPI = "users" :> Get '[JSON] [User] users :: [User] users = [ User "Isaac Newton" 372 "isaac@newton.co.uk" (fromGregorian 1683 3 1) , User "Albert Einstein" 136 "ae@mc2.org" (fromGregorian 1905 12 1) ] userAPI :: Proxy UserAPI userAPI = Proxy server :: Server UserAPI server = return users app :: Application app = serve userAPI server $ curl http://localhost:8081/code/tutorial.hs import Network.Wai import Network.Wai.Handler.Warp import System.Environment import qualified T1 import qualified T2 import qualified T3 import qualified T4 import qualified T5 import qualified T6 import qualified T7 import qualified T9 import qualified T10 app :: String -> (Application -> IO ()) -> IO () app n f = case n of "1" -> f T1.app "2" -> f T2.app "3" -> f T3.app "4" -> f T4.app "5" -> f T5.app "6" -> f T6.app "7" -> f T7.app "8" -> f T3.app "9" -> T9.writeJSFiles >> f T9.app "10" -> f T10.app _ -> usage main :: IO () main = do args <- getArgs case args of [n] -> app n (run 8081) _ -> usage usage :: IO () usage = do putStrLn "Usage:\t tutorial N" putStrLn "\t\twhere N is the number of the example you want to run." $ curl http://localhost:8081/foo not found ``` Nested APIs =========== Let's see how you can define APIs in a modular way, while avoiding repetition. Consider this simple example: ``` haskell type UserAPI3 = -- view the user with given userid, in JSON Capture "userid" Int :> Get '[JSON] User :<|> -- delete the user with given userid. empty response Capture "userid" Int :> Delete '[] () ``` We can instead factor out the `userid`: ``` haskell type UserAPI4 = Capture "userid" Int :> ( Get '[JSON] User :<|> Delete '[] () ) ``` However, you have to be aware that this has an effect on the type of the corresponding `Server`: ``` haskell ignore Server UserAPI3 = (Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO User) :<|> (Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO ()) Server UserAPI4 = Int -> ( EitherT ServantErr IO User :<|> EitherT ServantErr IO () ) ``` In the first case, each handler receives the *userid* argument. In the latter, the whole `Server` takes the *userid* and has handlers that are just computations in `EitherT`, with no arguments. In other words: ``` haskell server8 :: Server UserAPI3 server8 = getUser :<|> deleteUser where getUser :: Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO User getUser _userid = error "..." deleteUser :: Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO () deleteUser _userid = error "..." -- notice how getUser and deleteUser -- have a different type! no argument anymore, -- the argument directly goes to the whole Server server9 :: Server UserAPI4 server9 userid = getUser userid :<|> deleteUser userid where getUser :: Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO User getUser = error "..." deleteUser :: Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO () deleteUser = error "..." ``` Note that there's nothing special about `Capture` that lets you "factor it out": this can be done with any combinator. Here are a few examples of APIs with a combinator factored out for which we can write a perfectly valid `Server`. ``` haskell -- we just factor out the "users" path fragment type API1 = "users" :> ( Get '[JSON] [User] -- user listing :<|> Capture "userid" Int :> Get '[JSON] User -- view a particular user ) -- we factor out the Request Body type API2 = ReqBody '[JSON] User :> ( Get '[JSON] User -- just display the same user back, don't register it :<|> Post '[JSON] () -- register the user. empty response ) -- we factor out a Header type API3 = Header "Authorization" Token :> ( Get '[JSON] SecretData -- get some secret data, if authorized :<|> ReqBody '[JSON] SecretData :> Post '[] () -- add some secret data, if authorized ) newtype Token = Token ByteString newtype SecretData = SecretData ByteString ``` This approach lets you define APIs modularly and assemble them all into one big API type only at the end. ``` haskell type UsersAPI = Get '[JSON] [User] -- list users :<|> ReqBody '[JSON] User :> Post '[] () -- add a user :<|> Capture "userid" Int :> ( Get '[JSON] User -- view a user :<|> ReqBody '[JSON] User :> Put '[] () -- update a user :<|> Delete '[] () -- delete a user ) usersServer :: Server UsersAPI usersServer = getUsers :<|> newUser :<|> userOperations where getUsers :: EitherT ServantErr IO [User] getUsers = error "..." newUser :: User -> EitherT ServantErr IO () newUser = error "..." userOperations userid = viewUser userid :<|> updateUser userid :<|> deleteUser userid where viewUser :: Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO User viewUser = error "..." updateUser :: Int -> User -> EitherT ServantErr IO () updateUser = error "..." deleteUser :: Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO () deleteUser = error "..." ``` ``` haskell type ProductsAPI = Get '[JSON] [Product] -- list products :<|> ReqBody '[JSON] Product :> Post '[] () -- add a product :<|> Capture "productid" Int :> ( Get '[JSON] Product -- view a product :<|> ReqBody '[JSON] Product :> Put '[] () -- update a product :<|> Delete '[] () -- delete a product ) data Product = Product { productId :: Int } productsServer :: Server ProductsAPI productsServer = getProducts :<|> newProduct :<|> productOperations where getProducts :: EitherT ServantErr IO [Product] getProducts = error "..." newProduct :: Product -> EitherT ServantErr IO () newProduct = error "..." productOperations productid = viewProduct productid :<|> updateProduct productid :<|> deleteProduct productid where viewProduct :: Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO Product viewProduct = error "..." updateProduct :: Int -> Product -> EitherT ServantErr IO () updateProduct = error "..." deleteProduct :: Int -> EitherT ServantErr IO () deleteProduct = error "..." ``` ``` haskell type CombinedAPI = "users" :> UsersAPI :<|> "products" :> ProductsAPI server10 :: Server CombinedAPI server10 = usersServer :<|> productsServer ``` Finally, we can realize the user and product APIs are quite similar and abstract that away: ``` haskell -- API for values of type 'a' -- indexed by values of type 'i' type APIFor a i = Get '[JSON] [a] -- list 'a's :<|> ReqBody '[JSON] a :> Post '[] () -- add an 'a' :<|> Capture "id" i :> ( Get '[JSON] a -- view an 'a' given its "identifier" of type 'i' :<|> ReqBody '[JSON] a :> Put '[] () -- update an 'a' :<|> Delete '[] () -- delete an 'a' ) -- Build the appropriate 'Server' -- given the handlers of the right type. serverFor :: EitherT ServantErr IO [a] -- handler for listing of 'a's -> (a -> EitherT ServantErr IO ()) -- handler for adding an 'a' -> (i -> EitherT ServantErr IO a) -- handler for viewing an 'a' given its identifier of type 'i' -> (i -> a -> EitherT ServantErr IO ()) -- updating an 'a' with given id -> (i -> EitherT ServantErr IO ()) -- deleting an 'a' given its id -> Server (APIFor a i) serverFor = error "..." -- implementation left as an exercise. contact us on IRC -- or the mailing list if you get stuck! ``` Using another monad for your handlers ===================================== Remember how `Server` turns combinators for HTTP methods into `EitherT ServantErr IO`? Well, actually, there's more to that. `Server` is actually a simple type synonym. ``` haskell ignore type Server api = ServerT api (EitherT ServantErr IO) ``` `ServerT` is the actual type family that computes the required types for the handlers that's part of the `HasServer` class. It's like `Server` except that it takes a third parameter which is the monad you want your handlers to run in, or more generally the return types of your handlers. This third parameter is used for specifying the return type of the handler for an endpoint, e.g when computing `ServerT (Get '[JSON] Person) SomeMonad`. The result would be `SomeMonad Person`. The first and main question one might have then is: how do we write handlers that run in another monad? How can we "bring back" the value from a given monad into something *servant* can understand? Natural transformations ----------------------- If we have a function that gets us from an `m a` to an `n a`, for any `a`, what do we have? ``` haskell ignore newtype m :~> n = Nat { unNat :: forall a. m a -> n a} -- For example -- listToMaybeNat ::`[] :~> Maybe` -- listToMaybeNat = Nat listToMaybe -- from Data.Maybe ``` (`Nat` comes from "natural transformation", in case you're wondering.) So if you want to write handlers using another monad/type than `EitherT ServantErr IO`, say the `Reader String` monad, the first thing you have to prepare is a function: ``` haskell ignore readerToEither :: Reader String :~> EitherT ServantErr IO ``` Let's start with `readerToEither'`. We obviously have to run the `Reader` computation by supplying it with a `String`, like `"hi"`. We get an `a` out from that and can then just `return` it into `EitherT`. We can then just wrap that function with the `Nat` constructor to make it have the fancier type. ``` haskell readerToEither' :: forall a. Reader String a -> EitherT ServantErr IO a readerToEither' r = return (runReader r "hi") readerToEither :: Reader String :~> EitherT ServantErr IO readerToEither = Nat readerToEither' ``` We can write some simple webservice with the handlers running in `Reader String`. ``` haskell type ReaderAPI = "a" :> Get '[JSON] Int :<|> "b" :> Get '[JSON] String readerAPI :: Proxy ReaderAPI readerAPI = Proxy readerServerT :: ServerT ReaderAPI (Reader String) readerServerT = a :<|> b where a :: Reader String Int a = return 1797 b :: Reader String String b = ask ``` We unfortunately can't use `readerServerT` as an argument of `serve`, because `serve` wants a `Server ReaderAPI`, i.e., with handlers running in `EitherT ServantErr IO`. But there's a simple solution to this. Enter `enter` ------------- That's right. We have just written `readerToEither`, which is exactly what we would need to apply to the results of all handlers to make the handlers have the right type for `serve`. Being cumbersome to do by hand, we provide a function `enter` which takes a natural transformation between two parametrized types `m` and `n` and a `ServerT someapi m`, and returns a `ServerT someapi n`. In our case, we can wrap up our little webservice by using `enter readerToEither` on our handlers. ``` haskell readerServer :: Server ReaderAPI readerServer = enter readerToEither readerServerT app4 :: Application app4 = serve readerAPI readerServer ``` And we can indeed see this webservice in action by running `dist/build/tutorial/tutorial 7`. ``` bash $ curl http://localhost:8081/a 1797 $ curl http://localhost:8081/b "hi" ``` Conclusion ========== You're now equipped to write any kind of webservice/web-application using *servant*. One thing not covered here is how to incorporate your own combinators and will be the topic of a page on the website. The rest of this document focuses on *servant-client*, *servant-jquery* and *servant-docs*.

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