HttpServer class

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

Note: HttpServer provides low-level HTTP functionality. We recommend users evaluate the high-level APIs discussed at Write HTTP servers on dart.dev.

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';

void main() async {
  var server = await HttpServer.bind(InternetAddress.anyIPv6, 80);
  await server.forEach((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';

void main() async {
  var chain =
      Platform.script.resolve('certificates/server_chain.pem').toFilePath();
  var key = Platform.script.resolve('certificates/server_key.pem').toFilePath();
  var context = SecurityContext()
    ..useCertificateChain(chain)
    ..usePrivateKey(key, password: 'dartdart');
  var server =
      await HttpServer.bindSecure(InternetAddress.anyIPv6, 443, context);
  await server.forEach((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.

Implemented types

Constructors

HttpServer.listenOn(ServerSocket serverSocket)
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.
factory

Properties

address InternetAddress
The address that the server is listening on.
read-only
autoCompress bool
Whether the HttpServer should compress the content, if possible.
read / write
defaultResponseHeaders HttpHeaders
Default set of headers added to all response objects.
read-only
first Future<HttpRequest>
The first element of this stream.
read-onlyinherited
hashCode int
The hash code for this object.
read-onlyinherited
idleTimeout Duration?
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.
read / write
isBroadcast bool
Whether this stream is a broadcast stream.
read-onlyinherited
isEmpty Future<bool>
Whether this stream contains any elements.
read-onlyinherited
last Future<HttpRequest>
The last element of this stream.
read-onlyinherited
length Future<int>
The number of elements in this stream.
read-onlyinherited
port int
The port that the server is listening on.
read-only
runtimeType Type
A representation of the runtime type of the object.
read-onlyinherited
serverHeader String?
Gets and sets the default value of the Server header for all responses generated by this HttpServer.
read / write
sessionTimeout int
Sets the timeout, in seconds, for sessions of this HttpServer.
write-only
single Future<HttpRequest>
The single element of this stream.
read-onlyinherited

Methods

any(bool test(HttpRequest element)) Future<bool>
Checks whether test accepts any element provided by this stream.
inherited
asBroadcastStream({void onListen(StreamSubscription<HttpRequest> subscription)?, void onCancel(StreamSubscription<HttpRequest> subscription)?}) Stream<HttpRequest>
Returns a multi-subscription stream that produces the same events as this.
inherited
asyncExpand<E>(Stream<E>? convert(HttpRequest event)) Stream<E>
Transforms each element into a sequence of asynchronous events.
inherited
asyncMap<E>(FutureOr<E> convert(HttpRequest event)) Stream<E>
Creates a new stream with each data event of this stream asynchronously mapped to a new event.
inherited
cast<R>() Stream<R>
Adapt this stream to be a Stream<R>.
inherited
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
An HttpConnectionsInfo object summarizing the number of current connections handled by the server.
contains(Object? needle) Future<bool>
Returns whether needle occurs in the elements provided by this stream.
inherited
distinct([bool equals(HttpRequest previous, HttpRequest next)?]) Stream<HttpRequest>
Skips data events if they are equal to the previous data event.
inherited
drain<E>([E? futureValue]) Future<E>
Discards all data on this stream, but signals when it is done or an error occurred.
inherited
elementAt(int index) Future<HttpRequest>
Returns the value of the indexth data event of this stream.
inherited
every(bool test(HttpRequest element)) Future<bool>
Checks whether test accepts all elements provided by this stream.
inherited
expand<S>(Iterable<S> convert(HttpRequest element)) Stream<S>
Transforms each element of this stream into a sequence of elements.
inherited
firstWhere(bool test(HttpRequest element), {HttpRequest orElse()?}) Future<HttpRequest>
Finds the first element of this stream matching test.
inherited
fold<S>(S initialValue, S combine(S previous, HttpRequest element)) Future<S>
Combines a sequence of values by repeatedly applying combine.
inherited
forEach(void action(HttpRequest element)) Future<void>
Executes action on each element of this stream.
inherited
handleError(Function onError, {bool test(dynamic error)?}) Stream<HttpRequest>
Creates a wrapper Stream that intercepts some errors from this stream.
inherited
join([String separator = ""]) Future<String>
Combines the string representation of elements into a single string.
inherited
lastWhere(bool test(HttpRequest element), {HttpRequest orElse()?}) Future<HttpRequest>
Finds the last element in this stream matching test.
inherited
listen(void onData(HttpRequest event)?, {Function? onError, void onDone()?, bool? cancelOnError}) StreamSubscription<HttpRequest>
Adds a subscription to this stream.
inherited
map<S>(S convert(HttpRequest event)) Stream<S>
Transforms each element of this stream into a new stream event.
inherited
noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) → dynamic
Invoked when a nonexistent method or property is accessed.
inherited
pipe(StreamConsumer<HttpRequest> streamConsumer) Future
Pipes the events of this stream into streamConsumer.
inherited
reduce(HttpRequest combine(HttpRequest previous, HttpRequest element)) Future<HttpRequest>
Combines a sequence of values by repeatedly applying combine.
inherited
singleWhere(bool test(HttpRequest element), {HttpRequest orElse()?}) Future<HttpRequest>
Finds the single element in this stream matching test.
inherited
skip(int count) Stream<HttpRequest>
Skips the first count data events from this stream.
inherited
skipWhile(bool test(HttpRequest element)) Stream<HttpRequest>
Skip data events from this stream while they are matched by test.
inherited
take(int count) Stream<HttpRequest>
Provides at most the first count data events of this stream.
inherited
takeWhile(bool test(HttpRequest element)) Stream<HttpRequest>
Forwards data events while test is successful.
inherited
timeout(Duration timeLimit, {void onTimeout(EventSink<HttpRequest> sink)?}) Stream<HttpRequest>
Creates a new stream with the same events as this stream.
inherited
toList() Future<List<HttpRequest>>
Collects all elements of this stream in a List.
inherited
toSet() Future<Set<HttpRequest>>
Collects the data of this stream in a Set.
inherited
toString() String
A string representation of this object.
inherited
transform<S>(StreamTransformer<HttpRequest, S> streamTransformer) Stream<S>
Applies streamTransformer to this stream.
inherited
where(bool test(HttpRequest event)) Stream<HttpRequest>
Creates a new stream from this stream that discards some elements.
inherited

Operators

operator ==(Object other) bool
The equality operator.
inherited

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.