Delaying declaring static files/folders with CherryPy

I have a single CherryPy application serving two websites, each having their static files stored in respective sub-folders of my app folder (each subfolder is named after the respective domain). In my main top-level program (Main.py), the site is launched with cherrypy.quickstart(Root(), '/',config='cherrypy.cfg'). So far so good...

The problem I am having is with static declarations in config.cfg, which usually starts with

[/]
tools.staticdir.root = '/domain name/root/static/folder'
tools.staticdir.on = True
tools.staticdir.dir = ''

[/css]
tools.staticdir.on = True
tools.staticdir.dir = 'css'

However, at the time the app. is launched, I don't know the value of the tools.staticdir.root folder until I get a request, then I can evaulate the domain name (via. cherrypy.request.base) then set the default subfolder path and root folder accordingly.

So the question is, can I 'hold-off' declaring my static files/folders until my Index() method is called (if so, how?), or can they only be declared when cherrypy.quickstart() is run?

TIA, Alan

Solution

All Tools are just callables with some configuration sugar, so you can hold off until your index method via:

def index(self, ...):
    root = my_domain_map[cherrypy.request.headers['Host']]
    cherrypy.lib.staticdir(section='', dir='', root=root)
    # And then this funky hack...
    return cherrypy.response.body
index.exposed = True

...or just by calling cherrypy.lib.static.serve_file, which is even lower level...

...but there's a more integrated way. Set the root argument before you get to the index method, and indeed before the staticdir Tool is invoked. It is invoked in a before_handler hook (priority 50; lower numbers run first). So, you want to inspect your Host header somewhere just before that; let's pick priority 30:

def staticroot(debug=False):
    root = my_domain_map[cherrypy.request.headers['Host']]
    cherrypy.request.toolmaps['tools']['staticdir']['root'] = root
cherrypy.tools.staticroot = cherrypy.Tool(
    staticroot, point='before_handler', priority=30)

Then, turn on your new tool in config:

[/]
tools.staticroot.on = True

...and give it a whirl.