Release 0.27: Python routes and quality of life improvements

Today we're announcing the availability of the Primate 0.27 preview release. This release introduces support for Python routes and several quality of life improvements.

Python routes

Following up on our introduction of Go Wasm routes, this release extends the number of backend languages we support to three by adding Python support. As Wasm support hasn't been mainlined in Python yet, Primate uses pyodide under the hood to support Python.

Primate has thus become the first platform to combine Python on the backend with full support for a plethora of frontend frameworks such as Svelte, React or Solid -- including SSR, hydration, and client side rendering.

Install

To add support for Python, install the @primate/python package.

npm install @primate/python

Configure

Import and initialize the module in your configuration.

import python from "@primate/python";

export default {
  modules: [
    python(),
  ],
};

pyodide supports loading packages from PyPI. Add any packages (beyond the standard library) you'd like to use to the packages configuration array of the module.

import python from "@primate/python";

export default {
  modules: [
    python({
      // then later in your Python route, use `import numpy`
      packages: ["numpy"],
    }),
  ],
};

Use

When writing routes, you can pretty much do everything you can do in JavaScript routes, in Python. For example, if you return strings or dictionaries from your Python route, Primate will serve them as content type text/plain and application/json, respectively.

def get(request):
    return "Donald"

def post(request):
    return { "name": "Donald" }

If you send a GET request to /, you will see a plain text response of "Donald". For POST, you'll see a JSON response with {"name": "Donald"}.

In addition, much like with JavaScript routes, you have access to a request object that exposes the same properties as in JavaScript.

For example, if a GET request is sent to /?name=Donald, it could be served by the following route, returning the value of the query string parameter name as plain text.

def get(request):
  # on GET /?name=Donald -> responds with text/plain "Donald"
  return request.query.get("name")

For the full documentation of Python routes, see the Python module documentation.

Future of WebAssembly in Primate

With Go and Python Wasm supported in Primate, we are working on supporting additional languages in Primate and improving existing API compatibility to match that of JavaScript. As WASI matures and is supported by more environments, we intend to move on to that.

If you have a particular language you wish to see supported in Primate routes, please open an issue describing your use case.

Quality of life improvements

This release introduces several quality of life improvements.

Dots in route names

It was previously impossible to use dots in the names of routes. This restriction is now removed, allowing you to fake dynamic routes as static resources by creating route files for them.

export default {
  // serve on GET /sitemap.xml
  get() {
    // dynamically serve a sitemap file
  },
};

Customs headers in view handler

Combined with support for dots in route names, it is now possible to override the default content type (text/html) or any other header when using the view handler. This is particularly useful case you're using a template engine such as Handlebars to generate an XML file.

import view from "primate/handler/view";
import { xml } from "@rcompat/http/mime";

// this assumes you've imported and loaded the `handlebars` module from
// `@primate/frontend`
export default {
  // serve on GET /sitemap.xml
  get() {
    // load data and save it in a variable `pages`
    // ...

    const headers = { "Content-Type": xml };

    // serve Handlebars template as XML
    return view("sitemap.hbs", { pages }, { headers });
  },
};

Stop layouts from recursing upwards

Layouts in Primate work such that content returned by layout files in inner directories is placed inside layouts higher in the routes directory hierarchy, recursively

You may sometimes wish for this upwards recursion to halt at a particular layout, and this is now achievable by using export const recursive = false; within the +layout.js file.

import view from "primate/handler/view" ;

export default () => {
  return view("inner-layout.svelte");
};

export const recursive = false;

If a file routes/+layout.js exists, it will be bypassed for any routes using the layout routes/inner/+layout.js (routes in routes/inner or below).

Async guards

Guards can now be defined as async functions. This allows you to properly use async operations such as those exposed by request.store.

Migrating from 0.26

request.body instead of request.body.all()

As of this release we differentiate between how request.body and request.{path,query,cookies,headers} behave. request.body's properties are now accessed directly instead of with request.body.all() before.

This change also applies to the Go backend, where request.Body is now a map[string]any.

.all removed from dispatchers

Dispatchers (request.{path,query,headers,cookies}) no longer expose a .all method.

This change also applies to the Go backend, where Dispatcher no longer has an All function.

.all removed from request.session

request.session no longer exposes a .all method.

This change also applies to the Go backend, where Session no longer has an an All function.

Other changes

Consult the full changelog for a list of all relevant changes.

Next on the road

Some of the things we plan to tackle in the upcoming weeks are,

• Add projections and relations to stores
• Multidriver transactions
• Introduce IDE TypeScript support
• Add support for TypeScript (.ts) routes
• Add a command hook that would allow modules to register command line namespaces, to be able to run npx primate [namespace] [command] [flags]
• Use this new hook to create database migrations for SQL-flavored databases
• Add hydration and liveview support for @primate/vue
• Support the multipart/form-data content type
• Flesh out stores with default values, additional predicates and relations between tables/collections
• Add more type variants

This list isn't exhaustive or binding. None, some or all of these features may be included in 0.28, and other features may be prioritized according to feedback.

Fin

If you like Primate, consider joining our channel #primate on irc.libera.chat.

Otherwise, have a blast with the new version!