I'm probably missing something painfully obvious here, but I can't seem to find an answer, or work it out myself. In Sinatra, they have a self.get
method, which captures blocks, when a block is called, you're able to use the request
variable inside, how is this possible?
Sinatra
module Sinatra
class Base
class Request < Rack::Request
end
attr_accessor :request
def call!(env)
@request = Request.new(env)
end
class << self
def get(path, opts = {}, &block)
...
end
end
end
end
App
class App < Sinatra::Base
get '/' do
puts request
end
end
Wow. You piqued my curiousity, and sure enough, researching this was facinating. The magic starts in the compile!
method defined at: https://github.com/sinatra/sinatra/blob/master/lib/sinatra/base.rb#L1529
def compile!(verb, path, block, options = {})
options.each_pair { |option, args| send(option, *args) }
method_name = "#{verb} #{path}"
unbound_method = generate_method(method_name, &block)
pattern, keys = compile path
conditions, @conditions = @conditions, []
wrapper = block.arity != 0 ?
proc { |a,p| unbound_method.bind(a).call(*p) } :
proc { |a,p| unbound_method.bind(a).call }
wrapper.instance_variable_set(:@route_name, method_name)
[ pattern, keys, conditions, wrapper ]
end
Notice we turn the block passed to get
(or any route function) into an unbound method via generate_method (defined a few lines above). We then store a proc which takes two parameters, an object to bind the method to, and a list of arguments, which the method is called with.
Skip ahead to process_route
: https://github.com/sinatra/sinatra/blob/master/lib/sinatra/base.rb#L971
def process_route(pattern, keys, conditions, block = nil, values = [])
route = @request.path_info
route = '/' if route.empty? and not settings.empty_path_info?
return unless match = pattern.match(route)
values += match.captures.to_a.map { |v| force_encoding URI.unescape(v) if v }
if values.any?
original, @params = params, params.merge('splat' => [], 'captures' => values)
keys.zip(values) { |k,v| Array === @params[k] ? @params[k] << v : @params[k] = v if v }
end
catch(:pass) do
conditions.each { |c| throw :pass if c.bind(self).call == false }
block ? block[self, values] : yield(self, values)
end
ensure
@params = original if original
end
Theres a lot going on here, but the key is:
block[self, values]
This calls the stored block above with self, and the appropriate arguments. Thus the unbound method is bound to whatever process_route
is bound to( the current self
in process_route
). And what is process_route
bound to? An instance of Sinatra::Base
, which as we know has an attribute accessor request
that can now be reached in your original block. Tada!