Template I guess

so before all zolt app are written using .lua file and write to the response using echo which led to kind of bad dx so after the last ship there were some review on some kind of tsx like language so i been working on that and here zolt template build on top of go html/template with a lua block it will become a default way of writing app using zolt while .lua will be use for shared module and library

Documentation!

just deploy a new version of documentation site and the go rewrite is complete!
from the last update i also added

• http_request.header[“string”] let you get the header value
• http_request.query[“string”] let you get the parameters from request query
• http_request.method get the request method allow you to support POST and others
• turbokit module allow you to quickly create turbo-frame
  after this i will be working on form support so you can really build a web app with it

Merge!!

no more experimental-go branch the go rewrite has been merge to the master branch along with the new releases 0.4.0 with support for windows too!.
the documentation is currently wip so no doc yet sadd T_T but that the next thing am working on

Core Function is here

after the go rewrite i have now implement 3 core function back but with some changes from zig version so when the go merge it will be a breaking changes

• http_set_status(status: int) let you set http response code such as 404 500 403
• http_content_type(type: string) let you set content type header for usecase like json api
• http_header_add(key: string,value: string) let you add to the headers

i also implement require for loading module and bring back hol now as htmlkit

so yea looking forward to merge the go branch into main in a few days but it will 100% be a breaking changes not that who cared anyways except me cuz am the only one using it and now i have to fix my code

Sadly, There is such thing as a wrong decision

when i first set out to make zolt i figure it will be a good place to learn zig i mean it such a small project just a simple http server that execute lua. but then i started using it myself and kept needing more feature but sadly even tho this project started as a way to learn zig. i just didn’t really click with it thus when implementing feature i kept having to relies a lot on codex.

So what?

so i started a new branch call experimental-go that contain a go rewrite of zoltd plan to be as much backward compatible as possible but not fully as zig zoltd use luau while go zoltd use gopher lua but otherwise i will try and implement all function in zig

Naming

even tho the project is being rewritten in go. the name will still remain zolt cuz golt sound worse

What zolt go version like right now

i just implement a lua runtime based on gopher-lua and implement 2 function echo() and print()

HOL (Html On Lua)

so from the last ship someone suggest that there should be a tsx like syntax that allow you to write html easier and i agree with that writing the whole layout in echo is a pain so i make hol a pretty simple html builder that ship with zolt so you can just import it anywhere without having to download it
and am looking forward to add more feature such as native support for each element instead of H(“h1”) you can just do h1(“Header”) something like that

Query !

i added new api to the lua vm call request.query it accept 1 parameters field: string and return a string so if your url is host/?field1=value running request.query(“field1”) will return “value”

Quick Start

i have added new entry to documentation such as installation using the new install script and your first zolt web guide along with lua api reference.

for the zolt i have move status() and header() api into response.status() and response.header() to align more with request.path() and change webroot from current working dir to config parent dir.

Documentation!!

so i been working on a documentation for zolt with guess what zolt
well the doc right now is pretty barebone with just intro and install for now but it is made with zolt,html,css,js
i also use hotwire turbo and stimulus, and it also use this cute font by creators of grug. (https://handdrawn.software/grug/)

you can access the doc page here
https://zolt-doc.perr.dev

Devlog 2

so from the last time i added new api such as

• require allow you to load other luau file and use them as a module
• header add header to the response
• status set http status code for the response

with require you can now create function that help you build, for example i created a render module that help me to render html easier without having to deal with writing html tags manually

apart from new api there has been a lot of changes behind the scene such as concurrency and performance improvements

for the next devlog i will be working on adding api support for query params , form data , json body , and cookies so that you can build more complex web app with zolt!
not only that am working on a documentation site that will also serve as an example on how to build web app using zolt

Zolt so this is php but with lua instead. well i wanted to learn zig and lately i been working on php project, and i just really love how stuff seem so simple but i kinda hate php syntax and the server around it. so yea here zolt it a zig web server that read the lua file you are requesting via query path then use luau to run it and give you the response. right now it just a plain text response but more coming!