Dynamic routes and web page hooks in Feather CMS on high of Vapor 4

Routing in Vapor 4

Clicking a hyperlink in your browser often takes you to a brand new web page on some web site. That is fairly simple, all people loves looking the world vast net via clicking hyperlinks, proper? 😅

The opposite a part of the story occurs on the server facet behind the scenes. A backend server can deal with a given URL in a number of methods, however these days the most well-liked strategy is to make use of a search engine optimization pleasant part (let’s name this path) to find out the content material that must be returned as a response to the consumer (browser), in fact we’re utilizing the HTTP protocol to switch knowledge.

So when a consumer asks for a selected route (path, URL, no matter… e.g. /foo) the server must resolve what to return. This determination making course of known as routing. In Vapor 4 you possibly can simply setup route handlers for a selected endpoint.

import Vapor

public func configure(_ app: Software) throws {
    app.get("foo") { req -> String in
        return "bar"
    }
}

That is completely advantageous, however fairly a static strategy. By static I imply that it’s important to alter the Swift code if you wish to register a brand new route. You additionally should rebuild and finally redeploy the server software if you wish to replicate the adjustments. That is programmer pleasant, however not so consumer pleasant.

One other factor is that it’s important to be particular about your path while you setup your routes, in any other case it’s important to use the catchall sample if you wish to deal with dynamic routes. Typically this could additionally result in some surprising issues, but it surely’s not the top of the world. Vapor is ready for the problem and the framework handles this downside in such a chic approach. Good job workforce Vapor. 👍

So, how will we register dynamic routes utilizing Feather and permit the top consumer to specify customized endpoints? Is it doable to put in writing the web page in Swift and afterward connect the code to an endpoint?

Dynamic routes in Feather CMS

With a view to write a web page in Swift and register it afterward beneath a dynamic path part it’s important to implement a customized web page hook perform. That is fairly easy, you simply should create a brand new module and implement the invoke technique identical to we did it for the frontend-page hook within the Feather CMS module tutorial publish. A customized web page hook is a particular hook perform the place you explicitly set the identify of the hook with a -page suffix. The static module will mean you can render this web page through a particular content material filter, extra about this half afterward. 💪

import Vapor
import Fluent
import ViperKit

last class FooModule: ViperModule {

    static var identify: String = "foo-module"

    func invoke(identify: String, req: Request, params: [String : Any] = [:]) -> EventLoopFuture<Any?>? {
        change identify {
        case "foo-page":
            let content material = params["page-content"] as! FrontendContentModel
            return strive! self.renderPage(req: req, web page: content material).map { $0 as Any }
        default:
            return nil
        }
    }
    
    func renderPage(req: Request, web page content material: FrontendContentModel) throws -> EventLoopFuture<Response> {
        req.eventLoop.future("foo").encodeResponse(for: req)
    }
}

The code is fairly easy, each single web page needs to be related to a FrontendContentModel object. You will can retreive this mannequin as an enter parameter and use it when you want particular frontend associated attributes through the rendering course of. Please remember that you at all times should return a future with a typical Response kind. It’s because hooks are very particular features and the web page hook can solely work with Response objects, you possibly can at all times use the encodeResponse technique in many of the instances. Within the hook it’s important to solid as soon as extra to Any, as a result of we love casting dynamic sorts in strongly typed languages. Anyway, it really works nice in apply… 🙈

So when you do not care an excessive amount of about this complete kind casting hell, you possibly can merely place your current Vapor route handler into the render perform and return the output as a response. This fashion you possibly can log in to the CMS and create a brand new web page with a singular slug for it. Let me present you the way to do that actual fast. After you log in as an admin, simply open the “Static / Pages” menu merchandise from the dashboard and create a brand new web page with the [foo-page] shortcode content material. Give it a reputation and press save.

Should you click on on the attention icon on the highest left nook you need to have the ability to see the draft model of your web page. As you possibly can see it is only a clean web page with the uncooked “foo” textual content on it, nothing particular, however hey, be at liberty to use Leaf and render some precise content material. Now when you return to the admin you need to see a bit of feather icon subsequent to the preview button, when you click on on which you can edit the user-facing content material particulars of your web page, such because the slug (path, permalink, URL, no matter you name it), meta title and outline, social preview picture, publish date, content material filters and so forth.

You may at all times change the slug and hook up your web page into a brand new route. Once you press the save button (or hit cmd+s) the adjustments might be dwell instantly, no must rebuild your backend server in any respect. In fact, when you tousled your code on the primary place you continue to have to repair that earlier than you possibly can hook it up, however hopefully that will not occur too usually. 🔨

The important thing takeaway right here is which you can write your code in Swift and afterward hook the web page as much as a selected route utilizing a dynamic strategy. That is actual good if it’s important to change the URL of a publish or a web page, however you continue to have the chance to create a daily web page or publish utilizing the admin interface. You should utilize HTML or markdown or you possibly can at all times construct your individual content material filter for Feather CMS when you want extra customized conduct. If you do not know the place to start out with Feather, you need to learn my getting began tutorial, when you have points, please report on GitHub or submit a PR.