HttpServer class

A server that delivers content, such as web pages, using the HTTP protocol.

The HttpServer is a Stream that provides HttpRequest objects. Each HttpRequest has an associated HttpResponse object. The server responds to a request by writing to that HttpResponse object. The following example shows how to bind an HttpServer to an IPv6 InternetAddress on port 80 (the standard port for HTTP servers) and how to listen for requests. Port 80 is the default HTTP port. However, on most systems accessing this requires super-user privileges. For local testing consider using a non-reserved port (1024 and above).

import 'dart:io';

main() {
  HttpServer
      .bind(InternetAddress.anyIPv6, 80)
      .then((server) {
        server.listen((HttpRequest request) {
          request.response.write('Hello, world!');
          request.response.close();
        });
      });
}

Incomplete requests, in which all or part of the header is missing, are ignored, and no exceptions or HttpRequest objects are generated for them. Likewise, when writing to an HttpResponse, any Socket exceptions are ignored and any future writes are ignored.

The HttpRequest exposes the request headers and provides the request body, if it exists, as a Stream of data. If the body is unread, it is drained when the server writes to the HttpResponse or closes it.

Bind with a secure HTTPS connection

Use bindSecure to create an HTTPS server.

The server presents a certificate to the client. The certificate chain and the private key are set in the SecurityContext object that is passed to bindSecure.

import 'dart:io';
import "dart:isolate";

main() {
  SecurityContext context = new SecurityContext();
  var chain =
      Platform.script.resolve('certificates/server_chain.pem')
      .toFilePath();
  var key =
      Platform.script.resolve('certificates/server_key.pem')
      .toFilePath();
  context.useCertificateChain(chain);
  context.usePrivateKey(key, password: 'dartdart');

  HttpServer
      .bindSecure(InternetAddress.anyIPv6,
                  443,
                  context)
      .then((server) {
        server.listen((HttpRequest request) {
          request.response.write('Hello, world!');
          request.response.close();
        });
      });
}

The certificates and keys are PEM files, which can be created and managed with the tools in OpenSSL.

Connect to a server socket

You can use the listenOn constructor to attach an HTTP server to a ServerSocket.

import 'dart:io';

main() {
  ServerSocket.bind(InternetAddress.anyIPv6, 80)
    .then((serverSocket) {
      HttpServer httpserver = new HttpServer.listenOn(serverSocket);
      serverSocket.listen((Socket socket) {
        socket.write('Hello, client.');
      });
    });
}

Other resources

HttpServer is a Stream. Refer to the Stream class for information about the streaming qualities of an HttpServer. Pausing the subscription of the stream, pauses at the OS level.
The shelf package on pub.dev contains a set of high-level classes that, together with this class, makes it easy to provide content through HTTP servers.

Implemented types

Stream<HttpRequest>

Constructors

HttpServer.listenOn(ServerSocket serverSocket) factory: Attaches the HTTP server to an existing ServerSocket. When the HttpServer is closed, the HttpServer will just detach itself, closing current connections but not closing serverSocket.

Properties

address → InternetAddress read-only: The address that the server is listening on. [...]
autoCompress ↔ bool read / write: Whether the HttpServer should compress the content, if possible. [...]
defaultResponseHeaders → HttpHeaders read-only: Default set of headers added to all response objects. [...]
first → Future<HttpRequest> read-only, inherited: The first element of this stream. [...]
hashCode → int read-only, inherited: The hash code for this object. [...]
idleTimeout ↔ Duration? read / write: Gets or sets the timeout used for idle keep-alive connections. If no further request is seen within idleTimeout after the previous request was completed, the connection is dropped. [...]
isBroadcast → bool read-only, inherited: Whether this stream is a broadcast stream.
isEmpty → Future<bool> read-only, inherited: Whether this stream contains any elements. [...]
last → Future<HttpRequest> read-only, inherited: The last element of this stream. [...]
length → Future<int> read-only, inherited: The number of elements in this stream. [...]
port → int read-only: The port that the server is listening on. [...]
runtimeType → Type read-only, inherited: A representation of the runtime type of the object.
serverHeader ↔ String? read / write: Gets and sets the default value of the Server header for all responses generated by this HttpServer. [...]
sessionTimeout ← int write-only: Sets the timeout, in seconds, for sessions of this HttpServer. [...]
single → Future<HttpRequest> read-only, inherited: The single element of this stream. [...]

Methods

any(bool test(HttpRequest element)) → Future<bool> inherited: Checks whether test accepts any element provided by this stream. [...]
asBroadcastStream({void onListen(StreamSubscription<HttpRequest> subscription), void onCancel(StreamSubscription<HttpRequest> subscription)}) → Stream<HttpRequest> inherited: Returns a multi-subscription stream that produces the same events as this. [...]
asyncExpand<E>(Stream<E>? convert(HttpRequest event)) → Stream<E> inherited: Transforms each element into a sequence of asynchronous events. [...]
asyncMap<E>(FutureOr<E> convert(HttpRequest event)) → Stream<E> inherited: Creates a new stream with each data event of this stream asynchronously mapped to a new event. [...]
cast<R>() → Stream<R> inherited: Adapt this stream to be a Stream<R>. [...]
close({bool force = false}) → Future: Permanently stops this HttpServer from listening for new connections. This closes the Stream of HttpRequests with a done event. The returned future completes when the server is stopped. For a server started using bind or bindSecure this means that the port listened on no longer in use. [...]
connectionsInfo() → HttpConnectionsInfo: A HttpConnectionsInfo object summarizing the number of current connections handled by the server.
contains(Object? needle) → Future<bool> inherited: Returns whether needle occurs in the elements provided by this stream. [...]
distinct([bool equals(HttpRequest previous, HttpRequest next)]) → Stream<HttpRequest> inherited: Skips data events if they are equal to the previous data event. [...]
drain<E>([E? futureValue]) → Future<E> inherited: Discards all data on this stream, but signals when it is done or an error occurred. [...]
elementAt(int index) → Future<HttpRequest> inherited: Returns the value of the indexth data event of this stream. [...]
every(bool test(HttpRequest element)) → Future<bool> inherited: Checks whether test accepts all elements provided by this stream. [...]
expand<S>(Iterable<S> convert(HttpRequest element)) → Stream<S> inherited: Transforms each element of this stream into a sequence of elements. [...]
firstWhere(bool test(HttpRequest element), {HttpRequest orElse()}) → Future<HttpRequest> inherited: Finds the first element of this stream matching test. [...]
fold<S>(S initialValue, S combine(S previous, HttpRequest element)) → Future<S> inherited: Combines a sequence of values by repeatedly applying combine. [...]
forEach(void action(HttpRequest element)) → Future inherited: Executes action on each element of this stream. [...]
handleError(Function onError, {bool test(dynamic error)}) → Stream<HttpRequest> inherited: Creates a wrapper Stream that intercepts some errors from this stream. [...]
join([String separator = ""]) → Future<String> inherited: Combines the string representation of elements into a single string. [...]
lastWhere(bool test(HttpRequest element), {HttpRequest orElse()}) → Future<HttpRequest> inherited: Finds the last element in this stream matching test. [...]
listen(void onData(HttpRequest event), {Function? onError, void onDone(), bool? cancelOnError}) → StreamSubscription<HttpRequest> inherited: Adds a subscription to this stream. [...]
map<S>(S convert(HttpRequest event)) → Stream<S> inherited: Transforms each element of this stream into a new stream event. [...]
noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) → dynamic inherited: Invoked when a non-existent method or property is accessed. [...]
pipe(StreamConsumer<HttpRequest> streamConsumer) → Future inherited: Pipes the events of this stream into streamConsumer. [...]
reduce(HttpRequest combine(HttpRequest previous, HttpRequest element)) → Future<HttpRequest> inherited: Combines a sequence of values by repeatedly applying combine. [...]
singleWhere(bool test(HttpRequest element), {HttpRequest orElse()}) → Future<HttpRequest> inherited: Finds the single element in this stream matching test. [...]
skip(int count) → Stream<HttpRequest> inherited: Skips the first count data events from this stream. [...]
skipWhile(bool test(HttpRequest element)) → Stream<HttpRequest> inherited: Skip data events from this stream while they are matched by test. [...]
take(int count) → Stream<HttpRequest> inherited: Provides at most the first count data events of this stream. [...]
takeWhile(bool test(HttpRequest element)) → Stream<HttpRequest> inherited: Forwards data events while test is successful. [...]
timeout(Duration timeLimit, {void onTimeout(EventSink<HttpRequest> sink)}) → Stream<HttpRequest> inherited: Creates a new stream with the same events as this stream. [...]
toList() → Future<List<HttpRequest>> inherited: Collects all elements of this stream in a List. [...]
toSet() → Future<Set<HttpRequest>> inherited: Collects the data of this stream in a Set. [...]
toString() → String inherited: A string representation of this object. [...]
transform<S>(StreamTransformer<HttpRequest, S> streamTransformer) → Stream<S> inherited: Applies streamTransformer to this stream. [...]
where(bool test(HttpRequest event)) → Stream<HttpRequest> inherited: Creates a new stream from this stream that discards some elements. [...]

Operators

operator ==(Object other) → bool inherited: The equality operator. [...]

Static Methods

bind(dynamic address, int port, {int backlog = 0, bool v6Only = false, bool shared = false}) → Future<HttpServer>: Starts listening for HTTP requests on the specified address and port. [...]
bindSecure(dynamic address, int port, SecurityContext context, {int backlog = 0, bool v6Only = false, bool requestClientCertificate = false, bool shared = false}) → Future<HttpServer>: The address can either be a String or an InternetAddress. If address is a String, bind will perform a InternetAddress.lookup and use the first value in the list. To listen on the loopback adapter, which will allow only incoming connections from the local host, use the value InternetAddress.loopbackIPv4 or InternetAddress.loopbackIPv6. To allow for incoming connection from the network use either one of the values InternetAddress.anyIPv4 or InternetAddress.anyIPv6 to bind to all interfaces or the IP address of a specific interface. [...]

© 2012 the Dart project authors
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v4.0.
https://api.dart.dev/stable/2.13.0/dart-io/HttpServer-class.html