Wasp•2mo ago

api

Can you use res.redirect in an api?

10 Replies

Hi @Bruno Njeru. I'm kapa.ai, your friendly support bot. I will try to answer your question by searching through the knowledge base. :wave: ---------------------- Yes, you can use res.redirect in a Wasp API. When you define a custom API endpoint in Wasp, your handler function receives the standard Express req and res objects, so you have full access to Express response methods, including res.redirect. For example:

export const myApi = (req, res, context) => {
  res.redirect('<https://example.com'>);
};

export const myApi = (req, res, context) => {
  res.redirect('<https://example.com'>);
};

This is possible because Wasp APIs are implemented as Express route handlers, giving you direct control over the response object, as shown in the official documentation and examples for custom HTTP API endpoints Docs: Custom HTTP API Endpoints. ---------------------- Note: you can ask me a follow up question by @ mentioning me again :speech_balloon: ---------------------- Sorry @Bruno Njeru, I seem to be having a bit of trouble. Don't worry though, I've pinged my support and they will try to fix me up! :technologist: Perhaps try again in 15mins?

Bruno NjeruOP•2mo ago

how does it work with wasp routes/pages? @kapa.ai

kapa.ai•2mo ago

Let me check the knowledge base for you again. One moment! :books: ---------------------- When using res.redirect in a Wasp API, you can redirect to any URL, including URLs that correspond to your Wasp-defined routes/pages. Since Wasp APIs are just Express route handlers, calling res.redirect('/some-wasp-route') will send an HTTP redirect to the client, and the browser will navigate to that path. However, the knowledge sources do not provide specific examples or additional details about best practices or caveats when redirecting to Wasp routes/pages from within an API. The general mechanism is the same as in Express: the client receives a redirect response and follows it to the specified route, which should be defined in your Wasp app as a page/route combination Docs: Custom HTTP API Endpoints. If you want type-safe or programmatic access to your Wasp routes in client-side code, you can use the routes object or the Link component, but this is not directly related to server-side res.redirect usage Docs: Type-Safe Links. In summary: res.redirect works as expected with Wasp routes/pages, but the knowledge sources do not mention any Wasp-specific considerations beyond standard Express behavior. ---------------------- Note: you can ask me a follow up question by @ mentioning me again :speech_balloon: ---------------------- Sorry @Bruno Njeru, I seem to be having a bit of trouble. Don't worry though, I've pinged my support and they will try to fix me up! :technologist: Perhaps try again in 15mins?

Bruno NjeruOP•2mo ago

can you show an example @kapa.ai together with the api definition in main.wasp?

kapa.ai•2mo ago

Let me check the knowledge base for you again. One moment! :books: ---------------------- Certainly! Here’s how you can define an API in main.wasp and implement it to use res.redirect, based on the official Wasp documentation: main.wasp

api redirectToHome {
  fn: import { redirectToHome } from "@src/apis",
  httpRoute: (GET, "/go-home")
}

api redirectToHome {
  fn: import { redirectToHome } from "@src/apis",
  httpRoute: (GET, "/go-home")
}

src/apis.js

export const redirectToHome = (req, res, context) => {
  res.redirect('/');
};

export const redirectToHome = (req, res, context) => {
  res.redirect('/');
};

In this example, when a GET request is made to /go-home, the API handler will redirect the client to the root route ("/"), which should correspond to a page/route defined in your Wasp app Docs: Custom HTTP API Endpoints Docs: Custom HTTP API Endpoints. The knowledge sources do not provide more advanced or Wasp-specific redirect examples, but this pattern follows the documented approach. ---------------------- Note: you can ask me a follow up question by @ mentioning me again :speech_balloon: ---------------------- Sorry @Bruno Njeru, I seem to be having a bit of trouble. Don't worry though, I've pinged my support and they will try to fix me up! :technologist: Perhaps try again in 15mins?

Bruno NjeruOP•2mo ago

im getting an error, cannot GET /go-home @kapa.ai

kapa.ai•2mo ago

Let me check the knowledge base for you again. One moment! :books: ---------------------- If you are getting "Cannot GET /go-home" after defining your API as shown, there are a few common reasons this might happen in Wasp: 1. API Declaration Not Recognized or Not Rebuilt
Make sure you have saved your changes to main.wasp and restarted the Wasp development server. Wasp needs to recompile the project to pick up new API declarations Docs: Custom HTTP API Endpoints. 2. Incorrect File Path or Import
Double-check that the import path in your api declaration matches the actual file and export in your project. For example, if you use:

   fn: import { redirectToHome } from "@src/apis"

   fn: import { redirectToHome } from "@src/apis"

then your file should be at src/apis.js (or .ts) and export redirectToHome. 3. API Route vs. Frontend Route
Make sure you are accessing the API route (e.g., /go-home) as an HTTP request (e.g., via browser address bar, curl, or client-side fetch). If you try to visit /go-home in the browser and you have a frontend route with the same path, the frontend router may take precedence, and you might not hit the API endpoint. 4. Wasp Version
The custom API feature is available in recent versions of Wasp. Make sure your project is using a version that supports the api declaration in main.wasp Docs: Custom HTTP API Endpoints. If you have followed the documentation and still get "Cannot GET /go-home", please ensure your main.wasp and implementation files are correct and that you have restarted the dev server. If the problem persists, the knowledge sources do not provide further troubleshooting steps for this specific error. ---------------------- Note: you can ask me a follow up question by @ mentioning me again :speech_balloon: ---------------------- Sorry @Bruno Njeru, I seem to be having a bit of trouble. Don't worry though, I've pinged my support and they will try to fix me up! :technologist: Perhaps try again in 15mins?

Bruno NjeruOP•2mo ago

@kapa.ai the redirect is going to your API server URL (e.g. http://localhost:3001/...) instead of the web client URL (e.g. http://localhost:3000/...)

kapa.ai•2mo ago

Let me check the knowledge base for you again. One moment! :books: ---------------------- When you use res.redirect in a Wasp API, the redirect will be relative to the API server's URL (e.g., http://localhost:3001/), because the API is served from the backend server. This is standard Express behavior: redirects are issued from the server that handled the request, so the browser will interpret relative paths as being on the same origin as the API server. If you want to redirect the user to a route on your web client (e.g., http://localhost:3000/), you need to explicitly specify the full URL of your web client in the redirect, not just a relative path. You can get the web client URL from the WASP_WEB_CLIENT_URL environment variable, which is available in your server config as config.frontendUrl:

import { config } from 'wasp/server'

export const redirectToHome = (req, res, context) => {
  res.redirect(config.frontendUrl + '/');
};

import { config } from 'wasp/server'

export const redirectToHome = (req, res, context) => {
  res.redirect(config.frontendUrl + '/');
};

This ensures the redirect goes to the correct client URL, not the API server URL Docs: Accessing the configuration Docs: Deployment Environment Variables. The knowledge sources confirm this approach and explain why the redirect defaults to the API server URL if you use a relative path. ---------------------- Note: you can ask me a follow up question by @ mentioning me again :speech_balloon: ---------------------- Sorry @Bruno Njeru, I seem to be having a bit of trouble. Don't worry though, I've pinged my support and they will try to fix me up! :technologist: Perhaps try again in 15mins?

miho•2mo ago

You can't redirect from an API on the client without setting up some sort of mechanism on the client that would get a response from the server and then redirect on the client 🙂

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