Handler

A request handler can be any object that implements Handler trait.

Request handling happens in two stages. First the handler object is called, returning any object that implements the Responder trait. Then, respond_to() is called on the returned object, converting itself to a Reply or Error.

By default actix provides Responder implementations for some standard types, such as &'static str, String, etc.

For a complete list of implementations, check Responder documentation.

Examples of valid handlers:

fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> &'static str {
    "Hello world!"
}

fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> String {
    "Hello world!".to_owned()
}

fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> Bytes {
    Bytes::from_static("Hello world!")
}

fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> Box<Future<Item=HttpResponse, Error=Error>> {
    ...
}

Handler trait is generic over S, which defines the application state's type. Application state is accessible from the handler with the HttpRequest::state() method; however, state is accessible as a read-only reference. If you need mutable access to state, it must be implemented.

Note

: Alternatively, the handler can mutably access its own state because the handle method takes mutable reference to self. Beware, actix creates multiple copies of the application state and the handlers, unique for each thread. If you run your application in several threads, actix will create the same amount as number of threads of application state objects and handler objects.

Here is an example of a handler that stores the number of processed requests:

# extern crate actix_web;
use actix_web::{App, HttpRequest, HttpResponse, dev::Handler};

struct MyHandler(usize);

impl<S> Handler<S> for MyHandler {
    type Result = HttpResponse;

    /// Handle request
    fn handle(&mut self, req: HttpRequest<S>) -> Self::Result {
        self.0 += 1;
        HttpResponse::Ok().into()
    }
}
# fn main() {}

Although this handler will work, self.0 will be different depending on the number of threads and number of requests processed per thread. A proper implementation would use Arc and AtomicUsize.

# extern crate actix;
# extern crate actix_web;
use actix_web::{server, App, HttpRequest, HttpResponse, dev::Handler};
use std::sync::Arc;
use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};

struct MyHandler(Arc<AtomicUsize>);

impl<S> Handler<S> for MyHandler {
    type Result = HttpResponse;

    /// Handle request
    fn handle(&mut self, req: HttpRequest<S>) -> Self::Result {
        self.0.fetch_add(1, Ordering::Relaxed);
        HttpResponse::Ok().into()
    }
}

fn main() {
    let sys = actix::System::new("example");

    let inc = Arc::new(AtomicUsize::new(0));

    server::new(
        move || {
            let cloned = inc.clone();
            App::new()
                .resource("/", move |r| r.h(MyHandler(cloned)))
        })
        .bind("127.0.0.1:8088").unwrap()
        .start();

    println!("Started http server: 127.0.0.1:8088");
#    actix::Arbiter::system().do_send(actix::msgs::SystemExit(0));
    let _ = sys.run();
}

Be careful with synchronization primitives like Mutex or RwLock. Actix web framework handles requests asynchronously. By blocking thread execution, all concurrent request handling processes would block. If you need to share or update some state from multiple threads, consider using the actix actor system.

Response with custom type

To return a custom type directly from a handler function, the type needs to implement the Responder trait.

Let's create a response for a custom type that serializes to an application/json response:

# extern crate actix;
# extern crate actix_web;
extern crate serde;
extern crate serde_json;
#[macro_use] extern crate serde_derive;
use actix_web::{server, App, HttpRequest, HttpResponse, Error, Responder, http};

#[derive(Serialize)]
struct MyObj {
    name: &'static str,
}

/// Responder
impl Responder for MyObj {
    type Item = HttpResponse;
    type Error = Error;

    fn respond_to(self, req: HttpRequest) -> Result<HttpResponse, Error> {
        let body = serde_json::to_string(&self)?;

        // Create response and set content type
        Ok(HttpResponse::Ok()
            .content_type("application/json")
            .body(body))
    }
}

/// Because `MyObj` implements `Responder`, it is possible to return it directly
fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> MyObj {
    MyObj{name: "user"}
}

fn main() {
    let sys = actix::System::new("example");

    server::new(
        || App::new()
            .resource("/", |r| r.method(http::Method::GET).f(index)))
        .bind("127.0.0.1:8088").unwrap()
        .start();

    println!("Started http server: 127.0.0.1:8088");
#    actix::Arbiter::system().do_send(actix::msgs::SystemExit(0));
    let _ = sys.run();
}

Async handlers

There are two different types of async handlers. Response objects can be generated asynchronously or more precisely, any type that implements the Responder trait.

In this case, the handler must return a Future object that resolves to the Responder type, i.e:

# extern crate actix_web;
# extern crate futures;
# extern crate bytes;
# use actix_web::*;
# use bytes::Bytes;
# use futures::stream::once;
# use futures::future::{Future, result};
fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> Box<Future<Item=HttpResponse, Error=Error>> {

    result(Ok(HttpResponse::Ok()
              .content_type("text/html")
              .body(format!("Hello!"))))
           .responder()
}

fn index2(req: HttpRequest) -> Box<Future<Item=&'static str, Error=Error>> {
    result(Ok("Welcome!"))
        .responder()
}

fn main() {
    App::new()
        .resource("/async", |r| r.route().a(index))
        .resource("/", |r| r.route().a(index2))
        .finish();
}

Or the response body can be generated asynchronously. In this case, body must implement the stream trait Stream<Item=Bytes, Error=Error>, i.e:

# extern crate actix_web;
# extern crate futures;
# extern crate bytes;
# use actix_web::*;
# use bytes::Bytes;
# use futures::stream::once;
fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> HttpResponse {
    let body = once(Ok(Bytes::from_static(b"test")));

    HttpResponse::Ok()
       .content_type("application/json")
       .body(Body::Streaming(Box::new(body)))
}

fn main() {
    App::new()
        .resource("/async", |r| r.f(index))
        .finish();
}

Both methods can be combined. (i.e Async response with streaming body)

It is possible to return a Result where the Result::Item type can be Future. In this example, the index handler can return an error immediately or return a future that resolves to a HttpResponse.

# extern crate actix_web;
# extern crate futures;
# extern crate bytes;
# use actix_web::*;
# use bytes::Bytes;
# use futures::stream::once;
# use futures::future::{Future, result};
fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> Result<Box<Future<Item=HttpResponse, Error=Error>>, Error> {
    if is_error() {
       Err(error::ErrorBadRequest("bad request"))
    } else {
       Ok(Box::new(
           result(Ok(HttpResponse::Ok()
                  .content_type("text/html")
                  .body(format!("Hello!"))))))
    }
}
#
# fn is_error() -> bool { true }
# fn main() {
#     App::new()
#        .resource("/async", |r| r.route().f(index))
#        .finish();
# }

Different return types (Either)

Sometimes, you need to return different types of responses. For example, you can error check and return errors, return async responses, or any result that requires two different types.

For this case, the Either type can be used. Either allows combining two different responder types into a single type.

# extern crate actix_web;
# extern crate futures;
# use actix_web::*;
# use futures::future::Future;
use futures::future::result;
use actix_web::{Either, Error, HttpResponse};

type RegisterResult = Either<HttpResponse, Box<Future<Item=HttpResponse, Error=Error>>>;

fn index(req: HttpRequest) -> RegisterResult {
    if is_a_variant() { // <- choose variant A
        Either::A(
            HttpResponse::BadRequest().body("Bad data"))
    } else {
        Either::B(      // <- variant B
            result(Ok(HttpResponse::Ok()
                   .content_type("text/html")
                   .body(format!("Hello!")))).responder())
    }
}
# fn is_a_variant() -> bool { true }
# fn main() {
#    App::new()
#        .resource("/register", |r| r.f(index))
#        .finish();
# }

Tokio core handle

Any actix web handler runs within a properly configured actix system and arbiter. You can always get access to the tokio handle via the Arbiter::handle() method.

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Handler

Response with custom type

Async handlers

Different return types (Either)

Tokio core handle

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