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Filters

Filters are the middleware and are individual functions that make up the request processing pipeline. They execute all of the framework’s functionality.

The Filter type is a simple function:


    type Filter func(c *Controller, filterChain []Filter)

Each filter is responsible for pulling the next filter off of the filter chain and invoking it. Below is the default filter stack:

// The default set of global filters.
// Can be set in an application on initialization.
var Filters = []Filter{
	PanicFilter,             // Recover from panics and display an error page instead.
	RouterFilter,            // Use the routing table to select the right Action
	FilterConfiguringFilter, // A hook for adding or removing per-Action filters.
	ParamsFilter,            // Parse parameters into Controller.Params.
	SessionFilter,           // Restore and write the session cookie.
	FlashFilter,             // Restore and write the flash cookie.
	ValidationFilter,        // Restore kept validation errors and save new ones from cookie.
	I18nFilter,              // Resolve the requested language
	InterceptorFilter,       // Run interceptors around the action.
	CompressFilter,          // Compress the result.
	ActionInvoker,           // Invoke the action.
}

Filter chain configuration

Global configuration

Applications may configure the filter chain by re-assigning the revel.Filters variable in init(). By default this will be in app/init.go for a newly generated app.

func init() {
	// The filters for my app
	revel.Filters = []Filter{
		PanicFilter,             // Recover from panics and display an error page instead.
		RouterFilter,            // Use the routing table to select the right Action
		ParamsFilter,            // Parse parameters into Controller.Params.
		FilterConfiguringFilter, // A hook for adding or removing per-Action filters.
		SessionFilter,           // Restore and write the session cookie.
		FlashFilter,             // Restore and write the flash cookie.
		ValidationFilter,        // Restore kept validation errors and save new ones from cookie.
		I18nFilter,              // Resolve the requested language
		InterceptorFilter,       // Run interceptors around the action.
		CompressFilter,          // Compress the result. [^1]
		ActionInvoker,           // Invoke the action.
	}
}

Every Request is sent down this chain, from top to bottom.

Per-Action configuration

Although all requests are sent down the revel.Filters chain, Revel also provides a FilterConfigurator, which allows the developer to add, insert, or remove filter stages based on the Action or Controller.

This functionality is implemented by the FilterConfiguringFilter, itself a filter stage. For example to add a filter to all the actions for a MyController you can

func init() {
	revel.FilterController(MyController{}).Insert(MyAuthFilter, revel.BEFORE, revel.ActionInvoker)
}

Implementing a Filter

Keep the chain going

Filters are responsible for invoking the next filter to continue the request processing. This is generally done with an expression as shown here:

var MyFilter = func(c *revel.Controller, fc []revel.Filter) {
	// .. do some pre-processing ..

	fc[0](c, fc[1:]) // Execute the next filter stage.

	// .. do some post-processing ..
}

Getting the app Controller type

Filters receive the base Controller type as an argument, rather than the actual Controller type that was invoked. If your filter requires access to the actual Controller type that was invoked, it may grab it with the following trick:

var MyFilter = func(c *revel.Controller, fc []revel.Filter) {
	if ac, ok := c.AppController.(*MyController); ok {
		// Have an instance of *MyController...
	}

	fc[0](c, fc[1:]) // Execute the next filter stage.
}
Note: this pattern is frequently an indicator that interceptors may be a better mechanism to accomplish the desired functionality.
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