**DO NOT READ THIS FILE ON GITHUB, GUIDES ARE PUBLISHED ON https://guides.rubyonrails.org.** Rails on Rack ============= This guide covers Rails integration with Rack and interfacing with other Rack components. After reading this guide, you will know: * How to use Rack Middlewares in your Rails applications. * Action Pack's internal Middleware stack. * How to define a custom Middleware stack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: This guide assumes a working knowledge of Rack protocol and Rack concepts such as middlewares, URL maps, and `Rack::Builder`. Introduction to Rack -------------------- Rack provides a minimal, modular, and adaptable interface for developing web applications in Ruby. By wrapping HTTP requests and responses in the simplest way possible, it unifies and distills the API for web servers, web frameworks, and software in between (the so-called middleware) into a single method call. Explaining how Rack works is not really in the scope of this guide. In case you are not familiar with Rack's basics, you should check out the [Resources](#resources) section below. Rails on Rack ------------- ### Rails Application's Rack Object `Rails.application` is the primary Rack application object of a Rails application. Any Rack compliant web server should be using `Rails.application` object to serve a Rails application. ### `rails server` `rails server` does the basic job of creating a `Rack::Server` object and starting the web server. Here's how `rails server` creates an instance of `Rack::Server` ```ruby Rails::Server.new.tap do |server| require APP_PATH Dir.chdir(Rails.application.root) server.start end ``` The `Rails::Server` inherits from `Rack::Server` and calls the `Rack::Server#start` method this way: ```ruby class Server < ::Rack::Server def start ... super end end ``` ### `rackup` To use `rackup` instead of Rails' `rails server`, you can put the following inside `config.ru` of your Rails application's root directory: ```ruby # Rails.root/config.ru require_relative 'config/environment' run Rails.application ``` And start the server: ```bash $ rackup config.ru ``` To find out more about different `rackup` options, you can run: ```bash $ rackup --help ``` ### Development and auto-reloading Middlewares are loaded once and are not monitored for changes. You will have to restart the server for changes to be reflected in the running application. Action Dispatcher Middleware Stack ---------------------------------- Many of Action Dispatcher's internal components are implemented as Rack middlewares. `Rails::Application` uses `ActionDispatch::MiddlewareStack` to combine various internal and external middlewares to form a complete Rails Rack application. NOTE: `ActionDispatch::MiddlewareStack` is Rails' equivalent of `Rack::Builder`, but is built for better flexibility and more features to meet Rails' requirements. ### Inspecting Middleware Stack Rails has a handy command for inspecting the middleware stack in use: ```bash $ rails middleware ``` For a freshly generated Rails application, this might produce something like: ```ruby use Rack::Sendfile use ActionDispatch::Static use ActionDispatch::Executor use ActiveSupport::Cache::Strategy::LocalCache::Middleware use Rack::Runtime use Rack::MethodOverride use ActionDispatch::RequestId use ActionDispatch::RemoteIp use Sprockets::Rails::QuietAssets use Rails::Rack::Logger use ActionDispatch::ShowExceptions use WebConsole::Middleware use ActionDispatch::DebugExceptions use ActionDispatch::Reloader use ActionDispatch::Callbacks use ActiveRecord::Migration::CheckPending use ActionDispatch::Cookies use ActionDispatch::Session::CookieStore use ActionDispatch::Flash use ActionDispatch::ContentSecurityPolicy::Middleware use Rack::Head use Rack::ConditionalGet use Rack::ETag use Rack::TempfileReaper run MyApp::Application.routes ``` The default middlewares shown here (and some others) are each summarized in the [Internal Middlewares](#internal-middleware-stack) section, below. ### Configuring Middleware Stack Rails provides a simple configuration interface `config.middleware` for adding, removing, and modifying the middlewares in the middleware stack via `application.rb` or the environment specific configuration file `environments/.rb`. #### Adding a Middleware You can add a new middleware to the middleware stack using any of the following methods: * `config.middleware.use(new_middleware, args)` - Adds the new middleware at the bottom of the middleware stack. * `config.middleware.insert_before(existing_middleware, new_middleware, args)` - Adds the new middleware before the specified existing middleware in the middleware stack. * `config.middleware.insert_after(existing_middleware, new_middleware, args)` - Adds the new middleware after the specified existing middleware in the middleware stack. ```ruby # config/application.rb # Push Rack::BounceFavicon at the bottom config.middleware.use Rack::BounceFavicon # Add Lifo::Cache after ActionDispatch::Executor. # Pass { page_cache: false } argument to Lifo::Cache. config.middleware.insert_after ActionDispatch::Executor, Lifo::Cache, page_cache: false ``` #### Swapping a Middleware You can swap an existing middleware in the middleware stack using `config.middleware.swap`. ```ruby # config/application.rb # Replace ActionDispatch::ShowExceptions with Lifo::ShowExceptions config.middleware.swap ActionDispatch::ShowExceptions, Lifo::ShowExceptions ``` #### Deleting a Middleware Add the following lines to your application configuration: ```ruby # config/application.rb config.middleware.delete Rack::Runtime ``` And now if you inspect the middleware stack, you'll find that `Rack::Runtime` is not a part of it. ```bash $ rails middleware (in /Users/lifo/Rails/blog) use ActionDispatch::Static use # ... run Rails.application.routes ``` If you want to remove session related middleware, do the following: ```ruby # config/application.rb config.middleware.delete ActionDispatch::Cookies config.middleware.delete ActionDispatch::Session::CookieStore config.middleware.delete ActionDispatch::Flash ``` And to remove browser related middleware, ```ruby # config/application.rb config.middleware.delete Rack::MethodOverride ``` ### Internal Middleware Stack Much of Action Controller's functionality is implemented as Middlewares. The following list explains the purpose of each of them: **`Rack::Sendfile`** * Sets server specific X-Sendfile header. Configure this via `config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header` option. **`ActionDispatch::Static`** * Used to serve static files from the public directory. Disabled if `config.public_file_server.enabled` is `false`. **`Rack::Lock`** * Sets `env["rack.multithread"]` flag to `false` and wraps the application within a Mutex. **`ActionDispatch::Executor`** * Used for thread safe code reloading during development. **`ActiveSupport::Cache::Strategy::LocalCache::Middleware`** * Used for memory caching. This cache is not thread safe. **`Rack::Runtime`** * Sets an X-Runtime header, containing the time (in seconds) taken to execute the request. **`Rack::MethodOverride`** * Allows the method to be overridden if `params[:_method]` is set. This is the middleware which supports the PUT and DELETE HTTP method types. **`ActionDispatch::RequestId`** * Makes a unique `X-Request-Id` header available to the response and enables the `ActionDispatch::Request#request_id` method. **`ActionDispatch::RemoteIp`** * Checks for IP spoofing attacks. **`Sprockets::Rails::QuietAssets`** * Suppresses logger output for asset requests. **`Rails::Rack::Logger`** * Notifies the logs that the request has begun. After the request is complete, flushes all the logs. **`ActionDispatch::ShowExceptions`** * Rescues any exception returned by the application and calls an exceptions app that will wrap it in a format for the end user. **`ActionDispatch::DebugExceptions`** * Responsible for logging exceptions and showing a debugging page in case the request is local. **`ActionDispatch::Reloader`** * Provides prepare and cleanup callbacks, intended to assist with code reloading during development. **`ActionDispatch::Callbacks`** * Provides callbacks to be executed before and after dispatching the request. **`ActiveRecord::Migration::CheckPending`** * Checks pending migrations and raises `ActiveRecord::PendingMigrationError` if any migrations are pending. **`ActionDispatch::Cookies`** * Sets cookies for the request. **`ActionDispatch::Session::CookieStore`** * Responsible for storing the session in cookies. **`ActionDispatch::Flash`** * Sets up the flash keys. Only available if `config.action_controller.session_store` is set to a value. **`ActionDispatch::ContentSecurityPolicy::Middleware`** * Provides a DSL to configure a Content-Security-Policy header. **`Rack::Head`** * Converts HEAD requests to `GET` requests and serves them as so. **`Rack::ConditionalGet`** * Adds support for "Conditional `GET`" so that server responds with nothing if the page wasn't changed. **`Rack::ETag`** * Adds ETag header on all String bodies. ETags are used to validate cache. **`Rack::TempfileReaper`** * Cleans up tempfiles used to buffer multipart requests. TIP: It's possible to use any of the above middlewares in your custom Rack stack. Resources --------- ### Learning Rack * [Official Rack Website](https://rack.github.io) * [Introducing Rack](http://chneukirchen.org/blog/archive/2007/02/introducing-rack.html) ### Understanding Middlewares * [Railscast on Rack Middlewares](http://railscasts.com/episodes/151-rack-middleware)