Serving files with http_server

One of the main functions of a web server that we take for granted is the serving of static files. We can write this functionality completely with the classes from dart:io, but the Dart team has written a pub package called http_server with the aim to simplify web server programming to provide web content. We will use http_server in this recipe to code a web server that serves files. You can find the code in the project serving_files.

How to do it...

Perform the following steps to construct a web server for server files:

1. In the first example, serving_file.dart, you see the code for a web server delivering a file called Learning Dart Packt Publishing.html:

   import 'dart:io';
   import 'package:http_server/http_server.dart';
   
   InternetAddress HOST = InternetAddress.LOOPBACK_IP_V6;
   const PORT = 8080;
   
   void main() {
     VirtualDirectory staticFiles = new VirtualDirectory('.');
     HttpServer.bind(HOST, PORT).then((server) {
       server.listen((req) {
       staticFiles.serveFile...