Axum Explainer — quick, friendly intro

A tiny, interactive Axum app that shows how a Rust web server works using server-side templates (Askama) and small HTMX fragments. It's meant to teach by example — short, readable code and a live UI you can poke at.

Why this project is great for beginners

• Small and focused: only a few files to read (src/ and templates/).
• Hands-on: run it locally and explore the code while seeing changes in the browser.
• Uses real tools you'll meet in production: Axum, Askama, HTMX, Tokio.

Quick start — 1 command

Run this from the project root:

# default: 0.0.0.0:3001
AXUM_EXPLAINER_APP_HOST=0.0.0.0 AXUM_EXPLAINER_APP_PORT=3001 cargo run

Open http://127.0.0.1:3001 and click "Start with the Stack".

What you will learn (in 10 minutes)

• How Router maps URLs to handlers (src/router.rs).
• How to use State to share read-only data across handlers (src/state.rs).
• How handlers return HTML via Askama templates (src/handlers/).
• How small HTMX partials update parts of the page without a full reload (templates/partials).

Where to look first (guided path)

1. src/main.rs — app entry, logging, and server start.
2. src/router.rs — routes and static file serving.
3. src/handlers/pages.rs — full page handlers and template structs.
4. templates/ — open base.html and index.html to see how data flows from Rust into HTML.

Tips for exploring

• Start the server and open the UI; then search for a template variable in templates/ and find where it is set in src/.
• Try editing a template (small text), save, and refresh to see the change.
• The code is intentionally simple: many values are hard-coded in src/models/content.rs so you can read them easily.

Small, safe improvements you can try

• Replace an unwrap in src/config.rs with a small match to practice error handling.
• Add a tiny unit test for NavCtx (tests go in tests/ or as #[cfg(test)] in a module).

If you want more

• See full README with development tips, linting, and recommended CI in the original README (kept in repo history).

License

• Add a LICENSE file if you plan to reuse this code publicly (MIT or Apache-2.0 are common).

Questions or stuck? Tell me what you want to explore next — I can make a guided walkthrough or small PR with step-by-step edits.