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Ambiorix
Static

Static

This section details how to serve static files, such as images, CSS & JavaScript, using Ambiorix.

The underlying logic is inherited from httpuv which is also used by Shiny, therefore this is very similar to Shiny’s addResourcePath.

Serving a Static Directory

To serve static files, use the static() method of Ambiorix, which takes these parameters:

  • path: The path to the directory containing the static files.
  • uri: The URL path where these files will be accessible by the client.

For example, the following code:

app$static("public", "www")

Makes the files inside the public/ folder available under /www.

If there’s an image named logo.png inside public/, it will be accessible at /www/logo.png.

Here’s a full example of how your app might look like:

library(ambiorix)

app <- Ambiorix$new()

app$static(path = "path/to/static/assets", uri = "assets")

app$get("/", \(req, res){
  res$send(
    "<h1>Hello everyone!</h1>
    <img src='/assets/image.png' />"
  )
})

app$start()
All files in the directory are publicly accessible. Do not put any sensitive files in a static directory.

Serving Multiple Static Directories

If you need to serve multiple directories as static content, simply call static() multiple times with different path & uri values.

Consider this file structure:

.
├── another
│   └── the-ring.jpeg
├── index.R
└── public
    └── gollum.jpeg

To server both another/ and public/ as static directories:

Ambiorix$new()$
  static("public", "assets")$
  static("another", "assets2")$
  ...

Here’s a full example:

library(ambiorix)
library(htmltools)

home_get <- \(req, res){
  html <- tagList(
    tags$h3("One ring to rule them all"),
    tags$img(src = "/assets2/the-ring.jpeg", alt = "the one ring")
  )

  res$send(html)
}

about_get <- \(req, res) {
  html <- tagList(
    tags$h3("My precious!"),
    tags$img(src = "/assets/gollum.jpeg")
  )

  res$send(html)
}

Ambiorix$new()$
  static("public", "assets")$
  static("another", "assets2")$
  get("/", home_get)$
  get("/about", about_get)$
  start()

Now:

  • /assets2/the-ring.jpeg serves the-ring.jpeg from another/.
  • /assets/gollum.jpeg serves gollum.jpeg from public/.
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