Response

An instance of the response class is used to respond to HTTP requests. AdonisJS supports sending HTML fragments, JSON objects, streams, and much more. The response instance can be accessed using the ctx.response property.

Sending response

The simplest way to send a response is to return a value from the route handler.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/', async () => {
  /** Plain string */
  return 'This is the homepage.'

  /** Html fragment */
  return '<p> This is the homepage </p>'

  /** JSON response */
  return { page: 'home' }

  /** Converted to ISO string */
  return new Date()
})

Along with returning a value from the route handler, you can use the response.send method to explicitly set the response body. However, calling the response.send method multiple times will overwrite the old body and only keep the latest one.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/', async ({ response }) => {
  /** Plain string */
  response.send('This is the homepage')

  /** Html fragment */
  response.send('<p> This is the homepage </p>')

  /** JSON response */
  response.send({ page: 'home' })

  /** Converted to ISO string */
  response.send(new Date())
})

A custom status code for the response can be set using the response.status method.

response.status(200).send({ page: 'home' })

// Send empty 201 response
response.status(201).send('')

Streaming content

The response.stream method allows piping a stream to the response. The method internally destroys the stream after it finishes.

The response.stream method does not set the content-type and the content-length headers; you must set them explicitly before streaming the content.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/', async ({ response }) => {
  const image = fs.createReadStream('./some-file.jpg')
  response.stream(image)
})

A 500 status code is sent to the client in case of an error. However, you can customize the error code and message by defining a callback as the second parameter.

const image = fs.createReadStream('./some-file.jpg')

response.stream(image, () => {
  const message = 'Unable to serve file. Try again'
  const status = 400

  return [message, status]
})

Downloading files

We recommend using the response.download method over the response.stream method when you want to stream files from the disk. This is because the download method automatically sets the content-type and the content-length headers.

import app from '@adonisjs/core/services/app'
import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/uploads/:file', async ({ response, params }) => {
  const filePath = app.makePath(`uploads/${params.file}`)

  response.download(filePath)
})

Optionally, you can generate an Etag for the file contents. Using Etags will help the browser re-use the cached response from the previous request (if any).

const filePath = app.makePath(`uploads/${params.file}`)
const generateEtag = true

response.download(filePath, generateEtag)

Similar to the response.stream method, you can send a custom error message and status code by defining a callback as the last parameter.

const filePath = app.makePath(`uploads/${params.file}`)
const generateEtag = true

response.download(filePath, generateEtag, (error) => {
  if (error.code === 'ENOENT') {
    return ['File does not exists', 404]
  }

  return ['Cannot download file', 400]
})

Force downloading files

The response.attachment method is similar to the response.download method, but it forces the browsers to save the file on the user's computer by setting the Content-Disposition header.

import app from '@adonisjs/core/services/app'
import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/uploads/:file', async ({ response, params }) => {
  const filePath = app.makePath(`uploads/${params.file}`)

  response.attachment(filePath, 'custom-filename.jpg')
})

Setting response status and headers

Setting status

You may set the response status using the response.status method. Calling this method will override the existing response status (if any). However, you may use the response.safeStatus method to set the status only when it is undefined.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/', async ({ response }) => {
  /**
   * Sets the status to 200
   */
  response.safeStatus(200)

  /**
   * Does not set the status since it
   * is already set
   */
  response.safeStatus(201)
})

Setting headers

You may set the response headers using the response.header method. This method overrides the existing header value (if it already exists). However, you may use the response.safeHeader method to set the header only when it is undefined.

import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/', async ({ response }) => {
  /**
   * Defines the content-type header
   */
  response.safeHeader('Content-type', 'text/html')

  /**
   * Does not set the content-type header since it
   * is already set
   */
  response.safeHeader('Content-type', 'text/html')
})

You can use the response.append method to append values to existing header values.

response.append('Set-cookie', 'cookie-value')

The response.removeHeader method removes the existing header.

response.removeHeader('Set-cookie')

Redirects

The response.redirect method returns an instance of the Redirect class. The redirect class uses fluent API to construct the redirect URL.

The simplest way to perform a redirect is to call the redirect.toPath method with the redirection path.

import app from '@adonisjs/core/services/app'
import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/posts', async ({ response }) => {
  response.redirect().toPath('/articles')
})

The redirect class also allows constructing a URL from a pre-registered route. The redirect.toRoute method accepts the route identifier as the first parameter and the route params as the second parameter.

import app from '@adonisjs/core/services/app'
import router from '@adonisjs/core/services/router'

router.get('/articles/:id', async () => {}).as('articles.show')

router.get('/posts/:id', async ({ response, params }) => {
  response.redirect().toRoute('articles.show', { id: params.id })
})

Redirect back to the previous page

You might want to redirect the user to the previous page during form submissions in case of validation errors. You can do that using the redirect.back method.

response.redirect().back()

Redirection status code

The default status for redirect responses is 302; you can change it by calling the redirect.status method.

response.redirect().status(301).toRoute('articles.show', { id: params.id })

Redirect with query string

You can use the withQs method to append a query string to the redirect URL. The method accepts an object of a key-value pair and converts it to a string.

response.redirect().withQs({ page: 1, limit: 20 }).toRoute('articles.index')

To forward the query string from the current request URL, call the withQs method without any parameters.

// Forward current URL query string
response.redirect().withQs().toRoute('articles.index')

When redirecting back to the previous page, the withQs method will forward the query string of the previous page.

// Forward current URL query string
response.redirect().withQs().back()

Aborting request with an error

You may use the response.abort method to end the request by raising an exception. The method will throw an E_HTTP_REQUEST_ABORTED exception and trigger the exception handling flow.

router.get('posts/:id/edit', ({ response, auth, params }) => {
  const post = await Post.findByOrFail(params.id)

  if (!auth.user.can('editPost', post)) {
    response.abort({ message: 'Cannot edit post' })
  }

  // continue with the rest of the logic
})

By default, the exception will create an HTTP response with a 400 status code. However, you can specify a custom status code as the second parameter.

response.abort({ message: 'Cannot edit post' }, 403)

Running actions after response finishes

You may listen for the event when Node.js finishes writing the response to the TCP socket using the response.onFinish method. Under the hood, we use the on-finished package, so feel free to consult the package README file for an in-depth technical explanation.

router.get('posts', ({ response }) => {
  response.onFinish(() => {
    // cleanup logic
  })
})

Accessing Node.js res object

You can access the Node.js res object using the response.response property.

router.get('posts', ({ response }) => {
  console.log(response.response)
})

Response body serialization

The response body set using the response.send method gets serialized to a string before it is written as response to the outgoing message stream.

Following is the list of supported data types and their serialization rules.

• Arrays and Objects are stringified using the safe stringify function. The method is similar to JSON.stringify but removes the circular references and serializes BigInt(s).
• The number and boolean values are converted to a string.
• The instance of the Date class is converted to a string by calling the toISOString method.
• Regular expressions and error objects are converted to a string by calling the toString method.
• Any other data type results in an exception.

Content type inference

After serializing the response, the response class automatically infers and sets the content-type and the content-length headers.

Following is the list of rules we follow to set the content-type header.

• Content type is set to application/json for arrays and objects.
• It is set to text/html for HTML fragments.
• JSONP responses are sent with the text/javascript content type.
• The content type is set to text/plain for everything else.

Extending Response class

You can add custom properties to the Response class using macros or getters. Make sure to read the extending AdonisJS guide first if you are new to the concept of macros.

import { Response } from '@adonisjs/core/http'

Response.macro('property', function (this: Response) {
  return value
})
Response.getter('property', function (this: Response) {
  return value
})

Since the macros and getters are added at runtime, you must inform TypeScript about their types.

declare module '@adonisjs/core/http' {
  export interface Response {
    property: valueType
  }
}