Crow/docs/guides/static.md

Introduced in: v0.2

A static file is any file that resides in the server's storage.

Crow supports returning Static files as responses in 2 ways.

Implicit

Crow implicitly returns any static files placed in a static directory and any subdirectories, as long as the user calls the endpoint /static/path/to/file.

The static folder or endpoint can be changed by defining the macros CROW_STATIC_DIRECTORY "alternative_directory/" and CROW_STATIC_ENDPOINT "/alternative_endpoint/<path>".
static directory changes the directory in the server's filesystem, while the endpoint changes the URL that the client needs to access.

Explicit

You can directly return a static file by using the crow::response method #!cpp response.set_static_file_info("path/to/file");. The path is relative to the executable unless preceded by /, then it is an absolute path.
Please keep in mind that using the set_static_file_info method does invalidate any data already in your response body.

Note: Crow sets the content-type header automatically based on the file's extension, if an extension is unavailable or undefined, Crow uses text/plain, if you'd like to explicitly set a content-type, use #!cpp response.set_header("content-type", "mime/type"); AFTER calling set_static_file_info.