Play reverse routing without a Request instance

Question

I'm using a template to generate an email in Play. That email includes an URL which is generated through reverse routing :

<a href="@routes.MyController.downloadFile(user).absoluteURL()">

The problem is, the downloadFile function takes an implicit request: Request parameter (as any Action ) and I don't always have a Request when I'm sending an email (it can be triggered out of a request/response workflow).

Is there some way to obtain the reverse route anyway? Or maybe should I pass it a dummy request object (and then, how to generate one?)

Answer 1

Try putting FakeRequest on the compile classpath

libraryDependencies += "org.scalatestplus.play" %% "scalatestplus-play" % "5.0.0"

and then provide it as a default request parameter to the template

@(foo: String)(implicit request: RequestHeader = play.api.test.FakeRequest())

Answer 2

When implicit request is not available, you should use method described below defined in play.mvc.Call ( play.api.mvc.Call returned by reverse router extends java play.mvc.Call class, so there is no additional work needed):

/**
 * Transform this call to an absolute URL.
 *
 * @param secure true if the absolute URL should use HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP
 * @param host the absolute URL's domain
 * @return the absolute URL string
 */
 public String absoluteURL(boolean secure, String host)

Example view code:

@(secure: Boolean, host: String)
<a href="@routes.MyController.downloadFile(user).absoluteURL(secure, host)">

secure and host values could be obtained from request or defined somewhere in application configuration.