Programming Phoenix

Beautiful Code

Elixir is perhaps the first functional language to support Lisp-style macros with a more natural syntax. This feature, like a template for code, is not always the right tool for everyday users, but macros are invaluable for extending the Elixir language to add the common features all web servers need to support.

For example, web servers need to map routes onto functions that do the job:

pipeline :browser do
  plug :accepts, ["html"]
  plug :fetch_session
  plug :protect_from_forgery
end

pipeline :api do
  plug :accepts, ["json"]
end

scope "/", MyApp do
  pipe_through :browser
  get "/users",     UserController, :index
  ...
end

scope "/api/", MyApp do
  pipe_through :api
  ...
end

You’ll see this code a little later. ...