How do I make a trailing slash optional with webapp2?

Question

I'm using the new webapp2 (now the default webapp in 1.6), and I haven't been able to figure out how to make the trailing slash optional in code like this:

webapp.Route('/feed', handler = feed)

I've tried /feed/?, /feed/*, /feed\/* and /feed\/?, all to no avail.

Answer 1

To avoid creating duplicate URL:s to the same page, you should use a RedirectRoute with strict_slash set to True to automatically redirect /feed/ to /feed, like this:

from webapp2_extras.routes import RedirectRoute

route = RedirectRoute('/feed', handler=feed, strict_slash=True)

Read more at http://webapp2.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api/webapp2_extras/routes.html

Answer 2

I don't like the RedirectRoute class because it causes an unnecessary HTTP Redirect.
Based on the documentation for webapp2 Route class, here is a more detailed answer in this webapp2.Route with optional leading part thread.

Short Answer

My route patterns works for the following URLs.

1. /
2. /feed
3. /feed/
4. /feed/create
5. /feed/create/
6. /feed/edit/{entity_id}

SITE_URLS = [
    webapp2.Route(r'/', handler=HomePageHandler, name='route-home'),

    webapp2.Route(r'/feed/<:(create/?)|edit/><entity_id:(\d*)>',
        handler=MyFeedHandler,
        name='route-entity-create-or-edit'),

    webapp2.SimpleRoute(r'/feed/?',
        handler=MyFeedListHandler,
        name='route-entity-list'),
]

Hope it helps :-)