Tres - Step 1

Here, we're making the leap to F#. The changes to project.json for the dependent packages are the same as they were for Dos. F# projects are historically not split into directories, as compilation order is significant, and having them in the same directory allows the tooling to ensure that the compilation order is preserved. With the structure of project.json, this is not necessarily a limitation (though the tooling still doesn't support it, as of this writing), but we'll follow it for our purposes here.

The module is created as HomeModule.fs in the project root:

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namespace Tres

open Nancy

type HomeModule() as this =
  inherit NancyModule()

  do
    this.Get("/", fun _ -> "Hello World from Nancy F#")

If you look at Dos, you can see how the translation occurred:

• "using" becomes "open"
• F# does not express constructors in the way C# folks are used to seeing them. Parameters to the class are specified in the type declaration (or a new function, which we don't need for our purposes), and then are visible throughout the class.
• Since we don't have an explicit constructor where we can wire up the Get() method call, we accomplish it using a do binding; this is code that will be run every time the class is instantiated. The as this at the end of type HomeModule() allows us to use this to refer to the current instance; otherwise, do cannot see it.
• This also illustrates the syntax differences in defining lambdas between C# and F#. F# uses the fun keyword to indicate an anonymous function. The _ is used to indicate that we do not care what the parameter is; since this request doesn't require anything from the DynamicDictionary Nancy provides, we don't.

We rename Program.fs to App.fs, and in this file, we provide the contents from both Startup.cs and App.cs.

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namespace Tres

open Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder
open Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting
open Nancy
open Nancy.Owin

type Startup() =
  member this.Configure (app : IApplicationBuilder) =
    app.UseOwin (fun x -> x.UseNancy (fun x -> ()) |> ignore) |> ignore

module App = 
  [<EntryPoint>]
  let main argv = 
    use host = (new WebHostBuilder()).UseKestrel().UseStartup<Startup>().Build()
    host.Run()
    0

The Startup class is exactly the same as the C# version, though it appears much differently. The UseNancy() method returns quite a complex result, but the parameter to the UseOwin() method expects an Action<>; by definition, this returns void*. In F#, there is no implicit throwaway of results**; you must explicitly mark results that should be ignored. UseNancy also expects an Action<>, so we end up with an extra lambda and two ignores to accomplish the same thing.

The App module is also new. F# modules can be thought of as static classes (if you use one from C#, that's what they look like). An F# source file must start with either a namespace or module declaration; also, any code (let, do, member, etc.) cannot be simply in a namespace. We start with the Tres namespace so that our Startup class's full name will be Tres.Startup, so we have to define a module for our let binding / entry point.

At this point, dotnet build will fail. I mentioned compilation order earlier; we've added one file and renamed the other, but we have yet to tell the compiler about them, or how they should be ordered. Back in project.json, look for the buildOptions entry, and replace

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"compile": {
  "includeFiles": [
    "Program.fs"
  ]
}

with

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"compile": {
  "includeFiles": [
    "HomeModule.fs",
    "App.fs"
  ]
}

(In the future, we'll add updating this list to our discipline of creating a new file.)

Now, we can execute dotnet run, watch it start, visit localhost:5000, and see our F# message.

Back to Step 1

* The unit type in F# is the parallel to this, but there's more to it than just "something else to call void."

** For example, StringBuilder.Append() returns the builder so you can chain calls, but it also mutates the builder, and you don't have to provide a variable assignment for every call. In F#, you would either need to provide that, or pipe the output (|>) to ignore.

• objects () |> functions
• Home page
• Source Code on GitHub
• License
• Steps
• 1 |> Hello World
• 2 |> Data Model
• 3 |> RethinkDB Connection