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Update the constraints chapter

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Loïc Hoguin 2017-07-23 15:30:32 +02:00
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@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Constraints are validation and conversion functions applied
to user input.
They are used in various places in Cowboy, including the
router and the request match functions.
router and the `cowboy_req` match functions.
=== Syntax
@ -36,10 +36,18 @@ check that the integer is positive:
[source,erlang]
----
PositiveFun = fun(V) when V > 0 -> true; (_) -> false end,
PositiveFun = fun
(_, V) when V > 0 ->
{ok, V};
(_, _) ->
{error, not_positive}
end,
{my_value, [int, PositiveFun]}.
----
We ignore the first fun argument in this snippet. We shouldn't.
We will simply learn what it is later in this chapter.
When there's only one constraint, it can be provided directly
without wrapping it into a list:
@ -62,30 +70,54 @@ Built-in constraints are specified as an atom:
=== Custom constraints
Custom constraints are specified as a fun. This fun takes
a single argument and must return one of `true`, `{true, NewValue}`
or `false`.
two arguments. The first argument indicates the operation
to be performed, and the second is the value. What the
value is and what must be returned depends on the operation.
`true` indicates the input is valid, `false` otherwise.
The `{true, NewValue}` tuple is returned when the input
is valid and the value has been converted. For example,
the following constraint will convert the binary input
to an integer:
Cowboy currently defines three operations. The operation
used for validating and converting user input is the `forward`
operation.
[source,erlang]
----
fun (Value0) when is_binary(Value0) ->
try binary_to_integer(Value0) of
Value -> {true, Value}
int(forward, Value) ->
try
{ok, binary_to_integer(Value)}
catch _:_ ->
false
end.
{error, not_an_integer}
end;
----
Constraint functions should only crash because the programmer
made an error when chaining constraints incorrectly (for example
if the constraints were `[int, int]`, and not because of input.
If the input is invalid then `false` must be returned.
The value must be returned even if it is not converted
by the constraint.
In our snippet, the `is_binary/1` guard will crash only
because of a programmer error, and the try block is there
to ensure that we do not crash when the input is invalid.
The `reverse` operation does the opposite: it
takes a converted value and changes it back to what the
user input would have been.
[source,erlang]
----
int(reverse, Value) ->
try
{ok, integer_to_binary(Value)}
catch _:_ ->
{error, not_an_integer}
end;
----
Finally, the `format_error` operation takes an error
returned by any other operation and returns a formatted
human-readable error message.
[source,erlang]
----
int(format_error, {not_an_integer, Value}) ->
io_lib:format("The value ~p is not an integer.", [Value]).
----
Notice that for this case you get both the error and
the value that was given to the constraint that produced
this error.
Cowboy will not catch exceptions coming from constraint
functions. They should be written to not emit any exceptions.