BASEPATH not applied to asset configs due to macro scoping bug in @genietools

[alex-ten]

Summary

When deploying a Genie app behind an nginx reverse proxy with a subpath (e.g., /projects/genie_apps/), setting ENV["BASEPATH"] before loading GenieFramework does not properly configure asset URLs. Assets are requested without the base path prefix, resulting in 404 errors.

According to the official documentation, setting ENV["BASEPATH"] should automatically configure all asset paths. However, this fails silently due to a macro scoping bug in @genietools.

Environment

• GenieFramework: v3.0.1
• Stipple: v0.31.40
• Julia: 1.12.0
• Deployment: nginx reverse proxy with path stripping

Nginx Configuration

location /projects/myapp/ {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5071/;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Port $server_port;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
}

Expected Behavior

App code (following documentation):

module App

ENV["BASEPATH"] = "/projects/myapp"

using GenieFramework
@genietools

@app begin
    @in N = 0
    @out msg = ""
    @onchange N begin
        msg = "N = $N"
    end
end

function ui()
    [
        cell([
            p("Enter a number")
            textfield("N", :N)
        ])
        cell([
            bignumber("The value of N is", :N)
        ])
    ]
end

@page("/", ui)
end

Expected result: Asset URLs in generated HTML should include the base path:

<link href="/projects/myapp/stipple.jl/v0.31.40/assets/css/stipplecore.css" rel="stylesheet" />

Actual Behavior

Actual result: Asset URLs are generated without the base path:

<link href="/stipple.jl/v0.31.40/assets/css/stipplecore.css" rel="stylesheet" />

This causes 404 errors for all assets (CSS, JS) and WebSocket connection failures.

Root Cause

When loading the app, the following error appears (caught silently by try/catch):

Loading app┌ Error: 2025-11-26 19:27:16 UndefVarError(:PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS, 0x000000000000977e, Main.App)
└ @ Main.App ~/.julia/packages/GenieFramework/sLFpM/src/GenieFramework.jl:73

The bug is in /src/GenieFramework.jl at lines 69 and 79:

# Line 69 - inside `__genietools()` function
Genie.Assets.assets_config!([Genie, PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS..., GenieAutoReload], host = ENV["BASEPATH"])

# Line 79 - inside __genietools() function  
Genie.Assets.assets_config!([Genie, PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS...], host = Genie.config.cdn_url)

The PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS constant is defined in the GenieFramework module (line 23), but when the @genietools macro expands, the __genietools() function is defined in the user's module (e.g., Main.App). When this function tries to reference PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS, it looks for it in Main.App where it doesn't exist, causing an UndefVarError. Compare to line 118 which works correctly:

for plugin in GenieFramework.PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS  # ← Fully qualified!

The Fix

Change lines 69 and 79 to use the fully qualified module name: Line 69:

# Before (broken):
Genie.Assets.assets_config!([Genie, PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS..., GenieAutoReload], host = ENV["BASEPATH"])

# After (fixed):
Genie.Assets.assets_config!([Genie, GenieFramework.PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS..., GenieAutoReload], host = ENV["BASEPATH"])
Line 79:
# Before (broken):
Genie.Assets.assets_config!([Genie, PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS...], host = Genie.config.cdn_url)

# After (fixed):
Genie.Assets.assets_config!([Genie, GenieFramework.PLUGINS_WITH_ASSETS...], host = Genie.config.cdn_url)

Workaround (until fixed)

Users must manually configure all asset configs after @genietools:

module App

ENV["BASEPATH"] = "/projects/myapp"

using GenieFramework
@genietools

# Manual workaround - should not be necessary!
Genie.config.base_path = ENV["BASEPATH"]
Stipple.assets_config.host = ENV["BASEPATH"]
StippleUI.assets_config.host = ENV["BASEPATH"]
StipplePlotly.assets_config.host = ENV["BASEPATH"]
Genie.Assets.assets_config.host = ENV["BASEPATH"]
StipplePivotTable.assets_config.host = ENV["BASEPATH"]
StippleTable.assets_config.host = ENV["BASEPATH"]
StippleTabs.assets_config.host = ENV["BASEPATH"]
GenieAutoReload.assets_config.host = ENV["BASEPATH"]
Genie.config.websockets_base_path = ENV["BASEPATH"]

# Rest of app...

Related Issues

• #199 Similar issue reported but not fully diagnosed
• #10 Related BASEPATH discussion

Testing

I've verified the fix works by editing the local GenieFramework installation and can confirm that with the fully qualified module names, ENV["BASEPATH"] works as documented without requiring manual configuration.

[essenciary]

@alex-ten thanks for reporting this and for the fix.
Could you be so kind to make a PR for the fix and ideally include a couple of tests confirming the expected behavior?