IMPORTANT! We don't see any way how to make web development as great as Ruby on Rails or Django with a very static nature of current Swift. We hope that things will change at some point and we will return to active development.
A Ruby on Rails inspired Web Framework for Swift that runs on Linux and OS X.
- Install Development snapshot version from Swift.org or via swiftenv. If you are on OSX I highly recommend swiftenv - latest Swift will be able to coexist with system wide Swift that comes with Xcode.
swift --version
should show something like:Swift version 3.0-dev ...
- Checkout TodoApp example project.
- Run
swift build
inside app (most of dependencies throw deprecation warnings). - Run
./.build/debug/Swifton-TodoApp
. - Open
https://0.0.0.0:8000/todos
in your browser.
Contributions are more than welcome! The easiest way to start contributing to Swifton:
- Setup TodoApp
- Pick one issue from the issues list or propose enhancement.
- You can find Swifton source code in
Swifton-TodoApp/Packages/Swifton-<version>
directory. Packages insidePackages
directory comes with Git repository so feel free to do you changes there. - Compile and test TodoApp, this will help to check your changes and avoid regressions.
- Write tests and run it
swift build && swift test
(runrm -r Packages/*/Tests
inside Swifton folder if tests crashes) - Commit and push your changes, open pull request.
- Enjoy ;)
Swifton comes with ready to use Router, also you can use any router as long as it accepts Request and returns Response. Routes are defined in main.swift
file. Configured Router is passed to S4 interface supporting server. Router allows to define resources
and regular routes.
...
let router = Router.create { route in
route.resources("todos", controller: TodosController())
}
...
Which is equivalent to:
let router = Router()
router.get("/todos/new", TodosController()["new"])
router.get("/todos/{id}", TodosController()["show"])
router.get("/todos/{id}/edit", TodosController()["edit"])
router.get("/todos", TodosController()["index"])
router.post("/todos", TodosController()["create"])
router.delete("/todos/{id}", TodosController()["destroy"])
router.patch("/todos/{id}", TodosController()["update"])
Configured routes then are passed to application server.
...
serve { request in
router.respond(request)
}
...
A controller inherits from ApplicationController class, which inherits from Controller class. Action is a closure that accepts Request object and returns Response object.
class TodosController: ApplicationController {
// shared todo variable used to pass value between setTodo filter and actions
var todo: Todo?
override func controller() {
super.controller()
// sets before filter setTodo only for specified actions.
beforeAction("setTodo", only: ["show", "edit", "update", "destroy"])
// render all Todo instances with Index template (in Views/Todos/Index.html.stencil)
action("index") { request in
let todos = ["todos": Todo.allAttributes()]
return render("Todos/Index", todos)
}
// render Todo instance that was set in before filter
action("show") { request in
return render("Todos/Show", self.todo)
}
// render static New template
action("new") { request in
return render("Todos/New")
}
// render Todo instance's edit form
action("edit") { request in
return render("Todos/Edit", self.todo)
}
// create new Todo instance and redirect to list of Todos
action("create") { request in
Todo.create(request.params)
return redirectTo("/todos")
}
// update Todo instance and redirect to updated Todo instance
action("update") { request in
self.todo!.update(request.params)
return redirectTo("/todos/\(self.todo!.id)")
}
// destroy Todo instance
action("destroy") { request in
Todo.destroy(self.todo)
return redirectTo("/todos")
}
// set todo shared variable to actions can use it
filter("setTodo") { request in
// Redirect to "/todos" list if Todo instance is not found
guard let t = Todo.find(request.params["id"]) else { return self.redirectTo("/todos") }
self.todo = t as? Todo
// Run next filter or action
return self.next
}
}}
respondTo
allows to define multiple responders based client Accept
header:
...
action("show") { request in
return respondTo(request, [
"html": { render("Todos/Show", self.todo) },
"json": { renderJSON(self.todo) }
])
}
...
Swifton Controllers support beforeAction
and afterAction
filters, which run filters before or after action correspodingly. Filter is a closure that returns Response?
. Controller proceeds execution only if filter returns self.next
(which is actually nil
), otherwise it returns Response
object and doesn't proceed execution of other filters and action.
filter("setTodo") { request in
// Redirect to "/todos" list if Todo instance is not found
guard let t = Todo.find(request.params["id"]) else { return self.redirectTo("/todos") }
self.todo = t as? Todo
// Run next filter or action
return self.next
}
Swifton is ORM agnostic web framework. You can use any ORM of your choice. Swifton comes with simple in-memory MemoryModel class that you can inherit and use for your apps. Simple as this:
class User: MemoryModel {
}
...
User.all.count // 0
var user = User.create(["name": "Saulius", "surname": "Grigaitis"])
User.all.count // 1
user["name"] // "Saulius"
user["surname"] // "Grigaitis"
user.update(["name": "James", "surname": "Bond"])
user["surname"] // "Bond"
User.destroy(user)
User.all.count // 0
Few options if you need persistence:
- PostgreSQL adapter.
- MySQL adapter.
- Fluent simple SQLite ORM.
Swifton supports Mustache like templates via Stencil template language. View is rendered with controller's method render(template_path, object)
. Object needs either to conform to HTMLRenderable
protocol, either be [String: Any]
type where Any
allows to pass complex structures.
<tbody>
{% for todo in todos %}
<tr>
<td>{{ todo.title }}</td>
<td>{{ todo.completed }}</td>
<td><a href="/todos/{{ todo.id }}">Show</a></td>
<td><a href="/todos/{{ todo.id }}/edit">Edit</a></td>
<td><a data-confirm="Are you sure?" rel="" data-method="delete" href="/todos/{{ todo.id }}">Destroy</a></td>
</tr>
{% endfor %}
</tbody>
Views are loaded from Views
directory by default, you can also change this default setting by changing value of SwiftonConfig.viewsDirectory
(preferable in main.swift
file). Currently views are not cached, so you don't need to restart server or recompile after views are changed.
Static assets (JavaScript, CSS, images etc.) are loaded from Public
directory by default, you can also change this default setting by changing value of SwiftonConfig.publicDirectory
(preferable in main.swift
file).
renderJSON(object)
generates and returns JSON of an object. Object must conform to JSONRenderable
protocol.
action("show") { request in
return respondTo(request, [
"html": { render("Todos/Show", self.todo) },
"json": { renderJSON(self.todo) }
])
}
main.swift
is probably best place to put middleware. Simply wrap Router
instance with your middleware, you can even nest multiple middlewares.
...
serve { request in
router.respond(request)
}
...
Swifton comes with VeniceX based HTTP server. Swifton supports S4 HTTP standards for Swift so you can easily use any S4 supporting server.
Build release
configuration for better performance:
$ swift build --configuration release
Example TodoApp can be deployed to Heroku using the heroku-buildpack-swift.
Click the button below to automatically set up this example to run on your own Heroku account.
Swifton can be deployed with Docker. Some examples how to deploy it with Docker:
- TodoApp on EC2 Container Services (ECS) example
- Docker Container for the Apple's Swift programming language - docker-swift.