ESP32 AsyncWebServer with softAP does not serve pages

Question

I'm trying to create a AsyncWebServer after enabling the SoftAP:

#include <Arduino.h>
#include <SPIFFS.h>
#include <WiFi.h>
#include <WiFiAP.h>
#include <AsyncTCP.h>
#include <ESPAsyncWebServer.h>

WebApp webapp;

void setup() 
{
  Serial.begin(115200);
  SPIFFS.begin();

  File f = SPIFFS.open("/index.html");
  String s = f.readString();
  Serial.println(s);
  f.close();

  WiFi.softAP("ssid", NULL);
  WiFi.softAPsetHostname("ssid");
  Serial.println(WiFi.softAPIP());

  webapp.Begin();
}

void loop()
{
}

class WebApp
{
public:
    WebApp();
    void Begin();

private:
    AsyncWebServer _server;
};

#include "webapp.h"

WebApp::WebApp() : _server(80)
{
}

void WebApp::Begin()
{
  _server.on("/", HTTP_GET, [this](AsyncWebServerRequest *request)
  {
    Serial.println("GET request");
    _server.serveStatic("/", SPIFFS, "/").setDefaultFile("/index.html");
  });

  _server.onNotFound([](AsyncWebServerRequest *request){
    request->send(404);
  });

  _server.begin();
  Serial.println("[WEB] HTTP server started");
}

The SoftAP brings up the network and I can connect to it (softAPgetStationNum() tells me that 1 client is connected). It answers to pings. The index.html is stored into the flash (the contents is printed out correctly).

But when I try to open the root page (192.168.4.1) it prints out "GET request" but the browser request timeouts and nothing is received.

Am I missing anything in the code?

Answer 1

I don't have enough rep to make a comment on your post, but is it possible that when you give the parameter for the function setDefaultFile() that the forward slash on /index.html is causing the path of the file to be //index.html instead of /index.html.

Because serveStatic is probably appending the filename of setDefaultFile() to the root directory of / (the third parameter of serveStatic()), you're probably getting an extra character you don't want in your filepath.

TL;DR you don't need the / in index.html for setDefaultFile().

See https://github.com/me-no-dev/ESPAsyncWebServer#serving-files-in-directory for the example.

Answer 2

The usage of serveStatic() is wrong. It's not intended to be used inside a callback. Just place the call in the setup of the webserver, i.e.:

void WebApp::Begin()
{
  _server.serveStatic("/", SPIFFS, "/").setDefaultFile("/index.html");

  _server.onNotFound([](AsyncWebServerRequest *request)
  {
    request->send(404);
  });

  _server.begin();
  Serial.println("[WEB] HTTP server started");
}