lib/action_controller/metal/streaming.rb


# frozen_string_literal: true

# :markup: markdown

module ActionController # :nodoc:
  # # Action Controller Streaming
  #
  # Allows views to be streamed back to the client as they are rendered.
  #
  # By default, Rails renders views by first rendering the template and then the
  # layout. The response is sent to the client after the whole template is
  # rendered, all queries are made, and the layout is processed.
  #
  # Streaming inverts the rendering flow by rendering the layout first and
  # subsequently each part of the layout as they are processed. This allows the
  # header of the HTML (which is usually in the layout) to be streamed back to
  # client very quickly, enabling JavaScripts and stylesheets to be loaded earlier
  # than usual.
  #
  # Several Rack middlewares may not work and you need to be careful when
  # streaming. This is covered in more detail below, see the Streaming@Middlewares
  # section.
  #
  # Streaming can be added to a given template easily, all you need to do is to
  # pass the `:stream` option to `render`.
  #
  #     class PostsController
  #       def index
  #         @posts = Post.all
  #         render stream: true
  #       end
  #     end
  #
  # ## When to use streaming
  #
  # Streaming may be considered to be overkill for lightweight actions like `new`
  # or `edit`. The real benefit of streaming is on expensive actions that, for
  # example, do a lot of queries on the database.
  #
  # In such actions, you want to delay queries execution as much as you can. For
  # example, imagine the following `dashboard` action:
  #
  #     def dashboard
  #       @posts = Post.all
  #       @pages = Page.all
  #       @articles = Article.all
  #     end
  #
  # Most of the queries here are happening in the controller. In order to benefit
  # from streaming you would want to rewrite it as:
  #
  #     def dashboard
  #       # Allow lazy execution of the queries
  #       @posts = Post.all
  #       @pages = Page.all
  #       @articles = Article.all
  #       render stream: true
  #     end
  #
  # Notice that `:stream` only works with templates. Rendering `:json` or `:xml`
  # with `:stream` won't work.
  #
  # ## Communication between layout and template
  #
  # When streaming, rendering happens top-down instead of inside-out. Rails starts
  # with the layout, and the template is rendered later, when its `yield` is
  # reached.
  #
  # This means that, if your application currently relies on instance variables
  # set in the template to be used in the layout, they won't work once you move to
  # streaming. The proper way to communicate between layout and template,
  # regardless of whether you use streaming or not, is by using `content_for`,
  # `provide`, and `yield`.
  #
  # Take a simple example where the layout expects the template to tell which
  # title to use:
  #
  #     <html>
  #       <head><title><%= yield :title %></title></head>
  #       <body><%= yield %></body>
  #     </html>
  #
  # You would use `content_for` in your template to specify the title:
  #
  #     <%= content_for :title, "Main" %>
  #     Hello
  #
  # And the final result would be:
  #
  #     <html>
  #       <head><title>Main</title></head>
  #       <body>Hello</body>
  #     </html>
  #
  # However, if `content_for` is called several times, the final result would have
  # all calls concatenated. For instance, if we have the following template:
  #
  #     <%= content_for :title, "Main" %>
  #     Hello
  #     <%= content_for :title, " page" %>
  #
  # The final result would be:
  #
  #     <html>
  #       <head><title>Main page</title></head>
  #       <body>Hello</body>
  #     </html>
  #
  # This means that, if you have `yield :title` in your layout and you want to use
  # streaming, you would have to render the whole template (and eventually trigger
  # all queries) before streaming the title and all assets, which defeats the
  # purpose of streaming. Alternatively, you can use a helper called `provide`
  # that does the same as `content_for` but tells the layout to stop searching for
  # other entries and continue rendering.
  #
  # For instance, the template above using `provide` would be:
  #
  #     <%= provide :title, "Main" %>
  #     Hello
  #     <%= content_for :title, " page" %>
  #
  # Resulting in:
  #
  #     <html>
  #       <head><title>Main</title></head>
  #       <body>Hello</body>
  #     </html>
  #
  # That said, when streaming, you need to properly check your templates and
  # choose when to use `provide` and `content_for`.
  #
  # See also ActionView::Helpers::CaptureHelper for more information.
  #
  # ## Headers, cookies, session, and flash
  #
  # When streaming, the HTTP headers are sent to the client right before it
  # renders the first line. This means that, modifying headers, cookies, session
  # or flash after the template starts rendering will not propagate to the client.
  #
  # ## Middlewares
  #
  # Middlewares that need to manipulate the body won't work with streaming. You
  # should disable those middlewares whenever streaming in development or
  # production. For instance, `Rack::Bug` won't work when streaming as it needs to
  # inject contents in the HTML body.
  #
  # Also `Rack::Cache` won't work with streaming as it does not support streaming
  # bodies yet. Whenever streaming `Cache-Control` is automatically set to
  # "no-cache".
  #
  # ## Errors
  #
  # When it comes to streaming, exceptions get a bit more complicated. This
  # happens because part of the template was already rendered and streamed to the
  # client, making it impossible to render a whole exception page.
  #
  # Currently, when an exception happens in development or production, Rails will
  # automatically stream to the client:
  #
  #     "><script>window.location = "/500.html"</script></html>
  #
  # The first two characters (`">`) are required in case the exception happens
  # while rendering attributes for a given tag. You can check the real cause for
  # the exception in your logger.
  #
  # ## Web server support
  #
  # Rack 3+ compatible servers all support streaming.
  module Streaming
    private
      # Call render_body if we are streaming instead of usual `render`.
      def _render_template(options)
        if options.delete(:stream)
          # It shouldn't be necessary to set this.
          headers["cache-control"] ||= "no-cache"

          view_renderer.render_body(view_context, options)
        else
          super
        end
      end
  end
end