Rendering static files

Dynamic webpages

The erb method is typically used to render dynamic webpages (which should be placed in the app/views directory):

get '/404' do
  erb :not_found, layout: false
  # Searches for app/views/not_found.erb
end

Static files

However, static files can also be rendered in a similar way to dynamic webpages, using the render_static method:

get '/404' do
  render_static '/not_found.html'
  # Searches for app/static/public/not_found.html
end

Alternatively, the static method can be used to define a block. The above can be simplified into:

static '/not_found.html', aliases: %w[/404]

The static method basically generates a get route for the specified file path, along with its aliases. Aliases are not required though:

static '/not_found.html'

Block definition

If you wish to define multiple static routes at once, you can use the block format:

static do |s|
  s.route '/not_found.html'
  s.route '/maintenance.html', aliases: %w[/maintenance]
  s.route '/robots.txt'
end

Storage of static files

Static webpages should be stored in the app/static/public directory.

If you wish to access the data stored in any JSON, YAML or XML files in this directory (somewhere within your Ruby code), use the Static data accessor Static.public - read here for more information on how to use the data stored in these files.