Creating Hello World web application With Fano CLI

In this step by step tutorial, we are going to create a simple CGI web application which displays greeting message using Fano CLI. Read Scaffolding with Fano CLI for more information.

Who is this tutorial for?

This tutorial is written for anyone new to Fano Framework. It is assumed that you have proficiency with Free Pascal and its language syntax. You are familiar with Linux command and and its shell terminal.

Requirement

Create Project

Make sure that all requirements are met. To create a CGI project, run

$ fanocli --project-cgi=Hello

Wait until new project is created. If everything is ok, your project will be created inside Hello directory. Change active directory to Hello directory.

$ cd Hello

All actions below is assumed to take place inside Hello directory.

Build application

Run

$ ./build.sh

Wait until compilation is finished.

Setup web server configuration

Run

$ sudo fanocli --deploy-cgi=hello.fano

Access application from browser

Open web browser and go to http://hello.fano. You should see Fano Application Error page. It is normal as you have not create any route to handle the request.

Create a controller

Run

$ fanocli --controller=Home

Command above will create HomeController.pas in src/App/Home/Controllers directory and register route /home so you will be able to access it via URL http://hello.fano/home.

Rebuild application by running,

$ ./build.sh

After compilation is finished, open web browser and go to http://hello.fano/home. You should see text Home controller printed. Congratulations, your application is working.

Creating default route

However, if you open, http://hello.fano, you will still get Fano Application Error page. To fix it, you need to add route to /.

With your favorite text editor, open src/Routes/routes.inc file and add following line.

router.get('/', container.get('homeController') as IRequestHandler);

Rebuild application

$ ./build.sh

With web browser, go ahead and open http://hello.fano. Fano Application Error page is disappeared.

Summary

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use Fano CLI to

  • Setup web application project directory with Fano Framework,
  • Deploy application with Apache web server,
  • Create controller,
  • Create default route.

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