1 The following is more to point out to the code devs an issue of rails that can be percieved as a flaw.
2 And also me asking some oppinions from people who know better.
I want to add WebDAV to my Rails 3 App with Warden authentication. My warden middleware is injected via Devise.
http://github.com/chrisroberts/dav4rack
http://github.com/hassox/warden
http://github.com/plataformatec/devise
I cannot mount DAV4Rack handlers from inside rails app (routes), like this:
# in config/routes.rb
mount DAV4Rack::Handler.new(
:root => Rails.root.to_s, # <= it's just an example
:root_uri_path => '/webdav',
:resource_class => Dav::DocumentResource # <= my custom resource, you could use FileResource from dav4rack
), :at => "/webdav"
because rails validates HTTP verbs (GET POST PUT ..), and webdav uses HTTP extensions like PROPFIND that do not validate, throwing the following exception:
ActionController::UnknownHttpMethod (PROPFIND, accepted HTTP methods are get, head, put, post, delete, and options)
This validation takes place in ActionDispatch:
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-3.0.0/lib/action_dispatch/http/request.rb +56 +72
in (56) "def request_method" and (72) "def method"
Sample code from ActionDispatch that does the validation, to make things clear:
def method
@method ||= begin
method = env["rack.methodoverride.original_method"] || env['REQUEST_METHOD']
HTTP_METHOD_LOOKUP[method] || raise(ActionController::UnknownHttpMethod, "#{method}, accepted HTTP methods are #{HTTP_METHODS.to_sentence(:locale => :en)}")
method
end
end
In theory, we could monkey-patch this validation to comply with webdav verbs like the railsdav project used to do (note that is rails 2 there, in rails 3 one needs to monkey-patch action_dispatch/http/request).
To add DAV4Rack handlers to the rails app I have to mount the handler outside of ActionDispatch, at rack level, like this:
# config.ru
require ::File.expand_path('../config/environment', __FILE__)
require 'dav4rack/interceptor'
require 'dav/document_resource'
app = Rack::Builder.new{
map '/webdav/' do
run DAV4Rack::Handler.new(
:root => Rails.root.to_s,
:root_uri_path => '/webdav',
:resource_class => Dav::DocumentResource
)
end
map '/' do
use DAV4Rack::Interceptor, :mappings => {
'/webdav/' => {
:resource_class => Dav::DocumentResource
},
}
run Pmp::Application
end
}.to_app
run app
Now I have Webdav support in my application. But It still needs authentication, and for that I'd like to use warden.
# in document_resource.rb
def check_authentication
puts request.env['warden'] # nil :(
end
Warden is nil because my DAV4Rack::Handler is mounted above the session and warden middleware. Using "rake middleware" to inspect my stack I can see the following:
> rake middleware
use ActionDispatch::Static
use Rack::Lock
use ActiveSupport::Cache::Strategy::LocalCache
use Rack::Runtime
use Rails::Rack::Logger
use ActionDispatch::ShowExceptions
use ActionDispatch::RemoteIp
use Rack::Sendfile
use ActionDispatch::Callbacks
use ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::ConnectionManagement
use ActiveRecord::QueryCache
use ActionDispatch::Cookies
use ActionDispatch::Session::CookieStore
use ActionDispatch::Flash
use ActionDispatch::ParamsParser
use Rack::MethodOverride
use ActionDispatch::Head
use ActionDispatch::BestStandardsSupport
use Warden::Manager
run Pmp::Application.routes
I believe that by wrapping "Pmp::Application.routes" with DAV handler (just like I do above for "Pmp::Application" in config.ru) will inject my webdav handler in the stack at the right place to satisfy the two conditions:
- Be above ActionDispatch method validation code, to avoid ActionController::UnknownHttpMethod
- Be below session and Warden::Manager so I can use warden authentication.
How to do that? Looking at "rake middleware" otput it seems obvious to override the "Pmp::Application.routes" method:
# in my app at APP_ROOT/config/application.rb
# override the routes method inherited from Rails::Application#routes
def routes
routes_app = super
app = Rack::Builder.new {
map '/webdav/' do
run DAV4Rack::Handler.new(
:root => Rails.root.to_s,
:root_uri_path => '/webdav',
:resource_class => Dav::DocumentResource
)
end
map '/' do
use DAV4Rack::Interceptor, :mappings => {
'/webdav/' => {
:resource_class => Dav::DocumentResource
},
}
run routes_app
end
}.to_app
class << app; self end.class_eval do
attr_accessor :routes_app
def method_missing(sym, *args, &block)
routes_app.send sym, *args, &block
end
end
app.routes_app = routes_app
app
end
Because our new rack application "app" will be asked a few methods down the chain, that the old rack application "routes_app" used to resopnd to, we delegate theese to the old original application "routes_app" with a little method_missing magic.
And voila: everything is working! Great success.
Only one problem: I don't like it. There must be a better way to do all this enveloping, other than overriding routes method.
Note that this doesn't work with passenger. The best way seems to be monkey patching rails.
See: dav4rack wiki
THE BIG QUESTION:
IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO ADD A RACK APP JUST ABOVE THE "Pmp::Application#routes" APP BY MEANS OF RACK MOUNT OR OTHER ???
THE BIG CONCLUSION
- The "mount" semantics in routes.rb should be rack-level (not rails/railtie/whatever), to allow, in this way, handeling of HTTP extensions, or at least have a method for this case "mount_rack"
