Is there a way to handle unresolved routes? I'm writing an SPA that uses HTML5 history - which requi...

# ktor

[lewis]

Is there a way to handle unresolved routes? I'm writing an SPA that uses HTML5 history - which requires all unresolved routes to serve /

[lewis]

Given the way routing quality works, would /* be an appropriate way to handle this?

[lewis]

status(HttpStatusCode.NotFound) {
            if(call.request.accept()?.contains("text/html", ignoreCase = true) == true) {
                val content = call.resolveResource("index.html", "static")
                if(content != null) call.respond(HttpStatusCode.OK, content)
            } else {
                call.respond(HttpStatusCode.NotFound, "Not found")
            }
        }

Is this the best way to do this?

[wilyarti]

So basically you are serving static html content and want to serve a 404 if the resource is not found?

[avolkmann]

Try the tailcard matcher. https://stackoverflow.com/a/50965188/5335131

Untitled

[lewis]

@wilyarti not quite; actually the opposite. I use defaultResource("index.html", "static") for serving my index.html page on /, however, HTML5 history works by changing the URL client side.

For example, my SPA may have a route for /login, however, this route is not present in ktor - the route only exists in Vue. HTML5 history requires that any paths that would have resulted in a 404, instead serve the index.html - so if a user were to refresh /login it ktor should just return index.html and Vue will handle the route accordingly.

@avolkmann no dice, file("{...}", "index.html") in my static {} block I only see a 404 for routes undefined in ktor (e.g. /noroute). I tried your other suggestions, but I've so far been unsuccessful.

The closest I've been able to get is this, but it just returns index.html for everything 😛

I hoped that the routing would have been smart enough to execute the tailcard last, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

[lewis]

Untitled

Untitled

[lewis]

Something a bit like this; https://github.com/BrewdHQ/sparge

[wilyarti]

You could just match for a parameter. Like /{whatever}.

Then just ignore the parameter and just server index.html as a static file via a redirect.