When the server receives a request whose path starts with url_prefix, if the remaining part of the request path, is a file inside the archive file, the server will automatically serve that file to the client. The port can be optionally specified if the handler should run off a port other than the main port for the server.

Call this function before you call hwebserver.run, not from a URL handler.

For example, if you do this:

hwebserver.registerArchiveFile("/var/www/files/css.zip", "/css")

…and the client requests this server path:

/css/main.css

…and main.css file exists inside the css.zip file

…then the server will automatically serve the main.css file to the client without involving a Python handler.

You should try to set up the server so it serves any static files (files that are not generated dynamically from Houdini data, for example CSS and JavaScript files) this way, rather than in a Python handler. This virtual file system should only be used when file system space is limited. There is a performance hit to using this method compared to registering static directories.