---
title: Application
menu: docs_basics
weight: 140
---

# Writing an Application

`actix-web` provides various primitives to build web servers and applications with Rust.
It provides routing, middlewares, pre-processing of requests, post-processing of responses,
websocket protocol handling, multipart streams, etc.

All actix web servers are built around the `App` instance.  It is used for
registering routes for resources and middlewares.  It also stores application
state shared across all handlers within same application.

Applications act as a namespace for all routes, i.e all routes for a specific application
have the same url path prefix. The application prefix always contains a leading "/" slash.
If a supplied prefix does not contain leading slash, it is automatically inserted.
The prefix should consist of value path segments.

> For an application with prefix `/app`,
> any request with the paths `/app`, `/app/`, or `/app/test` would match;
> however, the path `/application` would not match.

{{< include-example example="application" section="setup" >}}

In this example, an application with the `/app` prefix and a `index.html` resource
are created. This resource is available through the `/app/index.html` url.

> For more information, check the
> [URL Dispatch](./sec-6-url-dispatch.html#using-a-application-prefix-to-compose-applications) section.

Multiple applications can be served with one server:

```rust
# extern crate actix_web;
use actix_web::{server, App, HttpResponse};

fn main() {
    server::new(|| vec![
        App::new()
            .prefix("/app1")
            .resource("/", |r| r.f(|r| HttpResponse::Ok())),
        App::new()
            .prefix("/app2")
            .resource("/", |r| r.f(|r| HttpResponse::Ok())),
        App::new()
            .resource("/", |r| r.f(|r| HttpResponse::Ok())),
    ]);
}
```

All `/app1` requests route to the first application, `/app2` to the second, and all other to the third.
**Applications get matched based on registration order**. If an application with a more generic
prefix is registered before a less generic one, it would effectively block the less generic
application matching. For example, if an `App` with the prefix `"/"` was registered
as the first application, it would match all incoming requests.

## State

Application state is shared with all routes and resources within the same application.
When using an http actor,state can be accessed with the `HttpRequest::state()` as read-only,
but interior mutability with `RefCell` can be used to achieve state mutability.
State is also available for route matching predicates and middlewares.

Let's write a simple application that uses shared state. We are going to store request count
in the state:

```rust
# extern crate actix_web;
use std::cell::Cell;
use actix_web::{App, HttpRequest, http};

// This struct represents state
struct AppState {
    counter: Cell<usize>,
}

fn index(req: HttpRequest<AppState>) -> String {
    let count = req.state().counter.get() + 1; // <- get count
    req.state().counter.set(count);            // <- store new count in state

    format!("Request number: {}", count)       // <- response with count
}

fn main() {
    App::with_state(AppState{counter: Cell::new(0)})
        .resource("/", |r| r.method(http::Method::GET).f(index))
        .finish();
}
```

> **Note**: http server accepts an application factory rather than an application
> instance. Http server constructs an application instance for each thread, thus application state
> must be constructed multiple times. If you want to share state between different threads, a
> shared object should be used, e.g. `Arc`. Application state does not need to be `Send` and `Sync`,
> but the application factory must be `Send` + `Sync`.

## Combining applications with different state

Combining multiple applications with different state is possible as well.

[server::new](https://docs.rs/actix-web/*/actix_web/server/fn.new.html) requires the handler to have a single type. 

This limitation can easily be overcome with the [App::boxed](https://docs.rs/actix-web/*/actix_web/struct.App.html#method.boxed) method, which converts an App into a boxed trait object.

```rust
# use std::thread;
# extern crate actix_web;
use actix_web::{server, App, HttpResponse};

struct State1;
struct State2;

fn main() {
# thread::spawn(|| {
    server::new(|| {
        vec![
            App::with_state(State1)
                 .prefix("/app1")
                 .resource("/", |r| r.f(|r| HttpResponse::Ok()))
                 .boxed(),
            App::with_state(State2)
                 .prefix("/app2")
                 .resource("/", |r| r.f(|r| HttpResponse::Ok()))
                 .boxed()
        ]
    })
        .bind("127.0.0.1:8080").unwrap()
        .run()
# });
}
```