D For A Web Developer

[Dicebot via Digitalmars-d]

On Wednesday, 30 April 2014 at 10:01:51 UTC, Rikki Cattermole 
wrote:
>> Why can't stand-alone annotated function be a valid route? 
>> Route is pretty much method + url + handler and first two can 
>> be inferred by convention in many cases (as done in 
>> vibe.web.rest & Co).
>
> The only way I know of that doesn't result in a container is 
> registerRoutes!"mymodule"; Instead of registerRoute!MyRoute;

Well you need to specify this only once with root module (usually 
app.d) supplied as a parameter. You can query all imported 
modules recursively from it.

> Now if I could get access to a list of all the modules and 
> hence all routes at CTFE then that wouldn't be an issue. Same 
> deal for models.

This can't be done with same guarantees as runtime reflection 
because of separate compilation. Requirement to transitively to 
import everything from root module is necessary. I don't see it 
much of a burden though.

> There is some benefits of having a container for routes however.
> Being able to add UDAs to that group of routes. I.e. Don't 
> generate javascript, give them a name/grouping.
> While its possible without it, its a bit more distinct.

There are definitely several benefits of having aggregated 
compile-time known list of routes. Actually I have added it as 
one of examples for my DConf talk just yesterday :) This list, 
however, can possibly be built automatically via reflection 
provided single root entry point.

I think good flexible framework should provide user both options 
and infer as much as possible by convention.