# Plug
[](https://travis-ci.org/elixir-lang/plug)
[](https://inch-ci.org/github/elixir-lang/plug)
Plug is:
1. A specification for composable modules between web applications
2. Connection adapters for different web servers in the Erlang VM
[Documentation for Plug is available online](https://hexdocs.pm/plug/).
## Hello world
```elixir
defmodule MyPlug do
import Plug.Conn
def init(options) do
# initialize options
options
end
def call(conn, _opts) do
conn
|> put_resp_content_type("text/plain")
|> send_resp(200, "Hello world")
end
end
```
The snippet above shows a very simple example on how to use Plug. Save that snippet to a file and run it inside the plug application with:
$ iex -S mix
iex> c "path/to/file.ex"
[MyPlug]
iex> {:ok, _} = Plug.Adapters.Cowboy.http MyPlug, []
{:ok, #PID<...>}
Access "https://localhost:4000/" and we are done!
## Installation
You can use plug in your projects in two steps:
1. Add plug and your webserver of choice (currently cowboy) to your `mix.exs` dependencies:
```elixir
def deps do
[{:cowboy, "~> 1.0.0"},
{:plug, "~> 1.0"}]
end
```
2. List both `:cowboy` and `:plug` as your application dependencies:
```elixir
def application do
[applications: [:cowboy, :plug]]
end
```
## The Plug.Conn
In the hello world example, we defined our first plug. What is a plug after all?
A plug takes two shapes. It is a function that receives a connection and a set of options as arguments and returns the connection or it is a module that provides an `init/1` function to initialize options and implement the `call/2` function, receiving the connection and the initialized options, and returning the connection.
As per the specification above, a connection is represented by the `Plug.Conn` struct:
```elixir
%Plug.Conn{host: "www.example.com",
path_info: ["bar", "baz"],
...}
```
Data can be read directly from the connection and also pattern matched on. Manipulating the connection often happens with the use of the functions defined in the `Plug.Conn` module. In our example, both `put_resp_content_type/2` and `send_resp/3` are defined in `Plug.Conn`.
Remember that, as everything else in Elixir, **a connection is immutable**, so every manipulation returns a new copy of the connection:
```elixir
conn = put_resp_content_type(conn, "text/plain")
conn = send_resp(conn, 200, "ok")
conn
```
Finally, keep in mind that a connection is a **direct interface to the underlying web server**. When you call `send_resp/3` above, it will immediately send the given status and body back to the client. This makes features like streaming a breeze to work with.
## The Plug Router
In practice, developers rarely write their own plugs. For example, Plug ships with a router that allows developers to quickly match on incoming requests and perform some action:
```elixir
defmodule AppRouter do
use Plug.Router
plug :match
plug :dispatch
get "/hello" do
send_resp(conn, 200, "world")
end
forward "/users", to: UsersRouter
match _ do
send_resp(conn, 404, "oops")
end
end
```
The router is a plug and, not only that, it contains its own plug pipeline too. The example above says that when the router is invoked, it will invoke the `:match` plug, represented by a local `match/2` function, and then call the `:dispatch` plug which will execute the matched code.
Plug ships with many plugs that you can add to the router plug pipeline, allowing you to plug something before a route matches or before a route is dispatched to. For example, if you want to add logging to the router, just do:
```elixir
plug Plug.Logger
plug :match
plug :dispatch
```
Note `Plug.Router` compiles all of your routes into a single function and relies on the Erlang VM to optimize the underlying routes into a tree lookup, instead of a linear lookup that would instead match route-per-route. This means route lookups are extremely fast in Plug!
This also means that a catch all `match` is recommended to be defined, as in the example above, otherwise routing fails with a function clause error (as it would in any regular Elixir function).
Each route needs to return the connection as per the Plug specification. See `Plug.Router` docs for more information.
## Testing plugs
Plug ships with a `Plug.Test` module that makes testing your plugs easy. Here is how we can test the router from above (or any other plug):
```elixir
defmodule MyPlugTest do
use ExUnit.Case, async: true
use Plug.Test
@opts AppRouter.init([])
test "returns hello world" do
# Create a test connection
conn = conn(:get, "/hello")
# Invoke the plug
conn = AppRouter.call(conn, @opts)
# Assert the response and status
assert conn.state == :sent
assert conn.status == 200
assert conn.resp_body == "world"
end
end
```
### Available Plugs
This project aims to ship with different plugs that can be re-used across applications:
* `Plug.CSRFProtection` - adds Cross-Site Request Forgery protection to your application. Typically required if you are using `Plug.Session`;
* `Plug.Head` - converts HEAD requests to GET requests;
* `Plug.Logger` - logs requests;
* `Plug.MethodOverride` - overrides a request method with one specified in headers;
* `Plug.Parsers` - responsible for parsing the request body given its content-type;
* `Plug.RequestId` - sets up a request ID to be used in logs;
* `Plug.Session` - handles session management and storage;
* `Plug.SSL` - enforce requests through SSL;
* `Plug.Static` - serves static files;
You can go into more details about each of them [in our docs](https://hexdocs.pm/plug/).
### Helper modules
Modules that can be used after you use `Plug.Router` or `Plug.Builder` to help development:
* `Plug.Debugger` - shows a helpful debugging page every time there is a failure in a request;
* `Plug.ErrorHandler` - allows developers to customize error pages in case of crashes instead of sending a blank one;
## License
Plug source code is released under Apache 2 License.
Check LICENSE file for more information.
