Static files

Cot provides a straightforward system for serving static files - resources that don’t require server-side processing, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript files.

Configuration and Usage

Directory Structure

The Cot CLI generates a static directory in your project root, which serves as the designated location for all static files.

Registering Static Files

To serve static files, you’ll need to register them in your application’s static_files() method within the CotApp implementation. Here’s a basic example:

impl CotApp for MyApp {
    fn static_files(&self) -> Vec<(String, Bytes)> {
        static_files!("css/main.css")
    }
}

To add more files, simply include them in the static_files! macro. For example, after adding a logo to your project:

impl CotApp for MyApp {
    fn static_files(&self) -> Vec<(String, Bytes)> {
        static_files!(
            "css/main.css",
            "images/logo.png"
        )
    }
}

All registered files are automatically served under the /static path. For instance, in the example above, you can access the logo at /static/images/logo.png.

Production Deployment

Collecting Static Files

For production environments, it’s recommended to serve static files through specialized services rather than the Cot server for performance and security reasons. Options include:

• Reverse proxy servers (e.g., nginx, Caddy)
• Content delivery networks (e.g., Cloudflare)

To facilitate this deployment strategy, Cot provides a collect-static CLI command that consolidates static files from all registered apps (including the Cot Admin app) into a single directory:

cargo run -- collect-static public/

This command aggregates all static files into the specified directory (in this case, public/), making them ready for serving through your chosen infrastructure.

Disabling Static File Serving

If you prefer not to serve static files through the Cot server, you can disable this functionality by removing the StaticFilesMiddleware from your project configuration:

let project = CotProject::builder()
    // ...
    .middleware_with_context(StaticFilesMiddleware::from_app_context)
    .middleware(LiveReloadMiddleware::new())
    .build()
    .await?;

Simply remove the .middleware_with_context(StaticFilesMiddleware ...) line to disable static file serving.