diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# happstack-server [![Hackage Status](https://img.shields.io/hackage/v/happstack-server.svg)][hackage] [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/Happstack/happstack-server.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/Happstack/happstack-server)
+
+[hackage]: https://hackage.haskell.org/package/happstack-server
+
+Happstack Server provides an HTTP server and a rich set of functions for routing requests, handling query parameters, generating responses, working with cookies, serving files, and more. For in-depth documentation see the Happstack Crash Course http://happstack.com/docs/crashcourse/index.html.
+
+## Install
+
+There are packages available on [hackage][] and [stack](https://www.stackage.org/lts-3.12/package/happstack-server-7.4.5).
+
+## Documentation 
+
+Please refer to the [Documentation on Hackage][hackage].
diff --git a/happstack-server.cabal b/happstack-server.cabal
--- a/happstack-server.cabal
+++ b/happstack-server.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name:                happstack-server
-Version:             7.4.5
+Version:             7.4.6
 Synopsis:            Web related tools and services.
 Description:         Happstack Server provides an HTTP server and a rich set of functions for routing requests, handling query parameters, generating responses, working with cookies, serving files, and more. For in-depth documentation see the Happstack Crash Course <http://happstack.com/docs/crashcourse/index.html>
 License:             BSD3
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 Category:            Web, Happstack
 Build-Type:          Simple
 Cabal-Version:       >= 1.8
-Extra-Source-Files:  tests/Happstack/Server/Tests.hs
+Extra-Source-Files:  tests/Happstack/Server/Tests.hs README.md
 
 source-repository head
     type:     git
@@ -95,9 +95,9 @@
                        time,
                        time-compat,
                        threads                >= 0.5,
-                       transformers           >= 0.1.3 && < 0.5,
+                       transformers           >= 0.1.3 && < 0.6,
                        transformers-base      >= 0.4   && < 0.5,
-                       transformers-compat    >= 0.3   && < 0.5,
+                       transformers-compat    >= 0.3   && < 0.6,
                        utf8-string            >= 0.3.4 && < 1.1,
                        xhtml,
                        zlib
diff --git a/src/Happstack/Server/Compression.hs b/src/Happstack/Server/Compression.hs
--- a/src/Happstack/Server/Compression.hs
+++ b/src/Happstack/Server/Compression.hs
@@ -2,6 +2,22 @@
 -- | Filter for compressing the 'Response' body.
 module Happstack.Server.Compression
     ( compressedResponseFilter
+    , compressedResponseFilter'
+    , compressWithFilter
+    , gzipFilter
+    , deflateFilter
+    , identityFilter
+    , starFilter
+    , standardEncodingHandlers
     ) where
 
-import Happstack.Server.Internal.Compression (compressedResponseFilter)
+import Happstack.Server.Internal.Compression ( compressedResponseFilter
+                                             , compressedResponseFilter'
+                                             , compressWithFilter
+                                             , gzipFilter
+                                             , deflateFilter
+                                             , identityFilter
+                                             , starFilter
+                                             , standardEncodingHandlers
+                                             )
+
diff --git a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Compression.hs b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Compression.hs
--- a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Compression.hs
+++ b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Compression.hs
@@ -2,10 +2,14 @@
 -- | Filter for compressing the 'Response' body.
 module Happstack.Server.Internal.Compression
     ( compressedResponseFilter
+    , compressedResponseFilter'
     , compressWithFilter
     , gzipFilter
     , deflateFilter
+    , identityFilter
+    , starFilter
     , encodings
+    , standardEncodingHandlers
     ) where
 import Happstack.Server.SimpleHTTP
 import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec
@@ -20,14 +24,51 @@
 -- | reads the @Accept-Encoding@ header.  Then, if possible
 -- will compress the response body with methods @gzip@ or @deflate@.
 --
+-- This function uses 'standardEncodingHandlers'. If you want to
+-- provide alternative handers (perhaps to change compression levels),
+-- see 'compressedResponseFilter''
+--
 -- > main =
 -- >   simpleHTTP nullConf $
 -- >      do str <- compressedResponseFilter
 -- >         return $ toResponse ("This response compressed using: " ++ str)
-compressedResponseFilter::
+compressedResponseFilter :: (FilterMonad Response m, MonadPlus m, WebMonad Response m, ServerMonad m) =>
+                            m String -- ^ name of the encoding chosen
+compressedResponseFilter = compressedResponseFilter' standardEncodingHandlers
+
+-- | reads the @Accept-Encoding@ header.  Then, if possible
+-- will compress the response body using one of the supplied filters.
+--
+-- A filter function takes two arguments. The first is a 'String' with
+-- the value to be used as the 'Content-Encoding' header. The second
+-- is 'Bool' which indicates if the compression filter is allowed to
+-- fallback to @identity@.
+--
+-- This is important if the resource being sent using sendfile, since
+-- sendfile does not provide a compression option. If @identity@ is
+-- allowed, then the file can be sent uncompressed using sendfile. But
+-- if @identity@ is not allowed, then the filter will need to return
+-- error 406.
+--
+-- You should probably always include the @identity@ and @*@ encodings
+-- as acceptable.
+--
+-- > myFilters :: (FilterMonad Response m) => [(String, String -> Bool -> m ()]
+-- > myFilters = [ ("gzip"    , gzipFilter)
+-- >             , ("identity", identityFilter)
+-- >             , ("*"       , starFilter)
+-- >             ]
+-- >
+-- > main =
+-- >   simpleHTTP nullConf $
+-- >      do let filters =
+-- > str <- compressedResponseFilter'
+-- >         return $ toResponse ("This response compressed using: " ++ str)
+compressedResponseFilter' ::
     (FilterMonad Response m, MonadPlus m, WebMonad Response m, ServerMonad m)
-    => m String -- ^ name of the encoding chosen
-compressedResponseFilter = do
+    => [(String, String -> Bool -> m ())]  -- ^ compression filter assoc list
+    -> m String                            -- ^ name of the encoding chosen
+compressedResponseFilter' encodingHandlers = do
     getHeaderM "Accept-Encoding" >>=
         (maybe (return "identity") installHandler)
 
@@ -35,7 +76,7 @@
     badEncoding = "Encoding returned not in the list of known encodings"
 
     installHandler accept = do
-      let eEncoding = bestEncoding allEncodings $ BS.unpack accept
+      let eEncoding = bestEncoding (map fst encodingHandlers) $ BS.unpack accept
       (coding, identityAllowed, action) <- case eEncoding of
           Left _ -> do
             setResponseCode 406
@@ -44,7 +85,7 @@
           Right encs@(a:_) -> return (a
                                      , "identity" `elem` encs
                                      , fromMaybe (fail badEncoding)
-                                          (lookup a allEncodingHandlers)
+                                          (lookup a encodingHandlers)
                                      )
           Right [] -> fail badEncoding
       action coding identityAllowed
@@ -73,13 +114,31 @@
              -> m ()
 deflateFilter = compressWithFilter Z.compress
 
+-- | compression filter for the identity encoding (aka, do nothing)
+--
+-- see also: 'compressedResponseFilter'
+identityFilter :: (FilterMonad Response m) =>
+                  String  -- ^ encoding to use for Content-Encoding header
+               -> Bool    -- ^ fallback to identity for SendFile (irrelavant for this filter)
+               -> m ()
+identityFilter = compressWithFilter id
+
+-- | compression filter for the * encoding
+--
+-- This filter always fails.
+starFilter :: (FilterMonad Response m) =>
+              String  -- ^ encoding to use for Content-Encoding header
+           -> Bool    -- ^ fallback to identity for SendFile (irrelavant for this filter)
+           -> m ()
+starFilter _ _ = fail "chose * as content encoding"
+
 -- | Ignore the @Accept-Encoding@ header in the 'Request' and attempt to compress the body of the response using the supplied compressor.
 --
 -- We can not compress files being transfered using 'SendFile'. If
 -- @identity@ is an allowed encoding, then just return the 'Response'
--- unmodified. Otherwise we return "406 Not Acceptable".
+-- unmodified. Otherwise we return @406 Not Acceptable@.
 --
--- see also: 'gzipFilter' and 'defaultFilter'
+-- see also: 'gzipFilter', 'deflateFilter', 'identityFilter', 'starFilter', 'compressedResponseFilter''
 compressWithFilter :: (FilterMonad Response m) =>
                       (L.ByteString -> L.ByteString) -- ^ function to compress the body
                    -> String -- ^ encoding to use for Content-Encoding header
@@ -137,11 +196,18 @@
                           | otherwise = compare (m0 mI) (m0 mJ)
 
 
-allEncodingHandlers:: (FilterMonad Response m) => [(String, String -> Bool -> m ())]
-allEncodingHandlers = zip allEncodings handlers
+-- | an assoc list of encodings and their corresponding compression
+-- functions.
+--
+-- e.g.
+--
+-- > [("gzip", gzipFilter), ("identity", identityFilter), ("*",starFilter)]
+standardEncodingHandlers :: (FilterMonad Response m) =>
+                            [(String, String -> Bool -> m ())]
+standardEncodingHandlers = zip standardEncodings handlers
 
-allEncodings :: [String]
-allEncodings =
+standardEncodings :: [String]
+standardEncodings =
     ["gzip"
     ,"x-gzip"
 --    ,"compress" -- as far as I can tell there is no haskell library that supports this
@@ -153,13 +219,13 @@
 
 handlers::(FilterMonad Response m) => [String -> Bool -> m ()]
 handlers =
-    [gzipFilter
-    ,gzipFilter
+    [ gzipFilter
+    , gzipFilter
 --    ,compressFilter
 --    ,compressFilter
-    ,deflateFilter
-    , \encoding _ -> setHeaderM "Accept-Encoding" encoding
-    ,const $ fail "chose * as content encoding"
+    , deflateFilter
+    , identityFilter
+    , starFilter
     ]
 
 -- | a parser for the Accept-Encoding header
diff --git a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Handler.hs b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Handler.hs
--- a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Handler.hs
+++ b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Handler.hs
@@ -194,15 +194,17 @@
 method :: B.ByteString -> Method
 method r = fj $ lookup r mtable
     where fj (Just x) = x
-          fj Nothing  = error "invalid request method"
-          mtable = [(P.pack "GET",     GET),
-                    (P.pack "HEAD",    HEAD),
-                    (P.pack "POST",    POST),
-                    (P.pack "PUT",     PUT),
-                    (P.pack "DELETE",  DELETE),
-                    (P.pack "TRACE",   TRACE),
-                    (P.pack "OPTIONS", OPTIONS),
-                    (P.pack "CONNECT", CONNECT)]
+          fj Nothing  = EXTENSION r
+          mtable = [ (P.pack "GET",     GET)
+                   , (P.pack "HEAD",    HEAD)
+                   , (P.pack "POST",    POST)
+                   , (P.pack "PUT",     PUT)
+                   , (P.pack "DELETE",  DELETE)
+                   , (P.pack "TRACE",   TRACE)
+                   , (P.pack "OPTIONS", OPTIONS)
+                   , (P.pack "CONNECT", CONNECT)
+                   , (P.pack "PATCH",   PATCH)
+                   ]
 
 -- Result side
 
diff --git a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/MessageWrap.hs b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/MessageWrap.hs
--- a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/MessageWrap.hs
+++ b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/MessageWrap.hs
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
                }
 
 bodyInput :: (MonadIO m) => BodyPolicy -> Request -> m ([(String, Input)], Maybe String)
-bodyInput _ req | ((rqMethod req /= POST) && (rqMethod req /= PUT)) || (not (isDecodable ctype)) =
+bodyInput _ req | (not (canHaveBody (rqMethod req))) || (not (isDecodable ctype)) =
     do _ <- liftIO $ tryPutMVar (rqInputsBody req) []
        return ([], Nothing)
     where
diff --git a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Monads.hs b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Monads.hs
--- a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Monads.hs
+++ b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Monads.hs
@@ -50,8 +50,9 @@
 
 import Happstack.Server.Internal.Cookie          (Cookie)
 import Happstack.Server.Internal.RFC822Headers   (parseContentType)
+import Happstack.Server.Internal.Types           (canHaveBody)
 import Happstack.Server.Types
-import Prelude                                   (Bool(..), Either(..), Eq(..), Functor(..), IO(..), Monad(..), Char, Maybe(..), String, Show(..), ($), (.), (>), (++), (&&), (||), (=<<), const, concatMap, flip, id, otherwise, zip)
+import Prelude                                   (Bool(..), Either(..), Eq(..), Functor(..), IO, Monad(..), Char, Maybe(..), String, Show(..), ($), (.), (>), (++), (&&), (||), (=<<), const, concatMap, flip, id, otherwise, zip)
 
 -- | An alias for 'WebT' when using 'IO'.
 type Web a = WebT IO a
@@ -235,7 +236,7 @@
 smAskRqEnv :: (ServerMonad m, MonadIO m) => m ([(String, Input)], Maybe [(String, Input)], [(String, Cookie)])
 smAskRqEnv = do
     rq  <- askRq
-    mbi <- liftIO $ if ((rqMethod rq == POST) || (rqMethod rq == PUT)) && (isDecodable (ctype rq))
+    mbi <- liftIO $ if (canHaveBody (rqMethod rq)) && (isDecodable (ctype rq))
       then readInputsBody rq
       else return (Just [])
     return (rqInputsQuery rq, mbi, rqCookies rq)
diff --git a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Types.hs b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Types.hs
--- a/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Types.hs
+++ b/src/Happstack/Server/Internal/Types.hs
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
      redirect, -- redirect_, redirect', redirect'_,
      isHTTP1_0, isHTTP1_1,
      RsFlags(..), nullRsFlags, contentLength, chunked, noContentLength,
-     HttpVersion(..), Length(..), Method(..), Headers, continueHTTP,
+     HttpVersion(..), Length(..), Method(..), canHaveBody, Headers, continueHTTP,
      Host, ContentType(..),
      readDec', fromReadS, readM, FromReqURI(..)
     ) where
@@ -132,8 +132,20 @@
     logM "Happstack.Server.AccessLog.Combined" INFO $ formatRequestCombined host user time requestLine responseCode size referer userAgent
 
 -- | HTTP request method
-data Method  = GET | HEAD | POST | PUT | DELETE | TRACE | OPTIONS | CONNECT
-               deriving(Show,Read,Eq,Ord,Typeable,Data)
+data Method = GET | HEAD | POST | PUT | DELETE | TRACE | OPTIONS | CONNECT | PATCH | EXTENSION ByteString
+    deriving (Show,Read,Eq,Ord,Typeable,Data)
+
+-- | Does the method support a message body?
+--
+-- For extension methods, we assume yes.
+canHaveBody :: Method
+            -> Bool
+canHaveBody POST          = True
+canHaveBody PUT           = True
+canHaveBody PATCH         = True
+canHaveBody DELETE        = True
+canHaveBody (EXTENSION _) = True
+canHaveBody _             = False
 
 -- | an HTTP header
 data HeaderPair = HeaderPair
diff --git a/src/Happstack/Server/RqData.hs b/src/Happstack/Server/RqData.hs
--- a/src/Happstack/Server/RqData.hs
+++ b/src/Happstack/Server/RqData.hs
@@ -536,11 +536,11 @@
        let bdy = fromMaybeBody "lookPairsBS" "" mBody
        return $ map (\(n,vbs) -> (n, inputValue vbs)) (query ++ bdy)
 
--- | The POST\/PUT body of a Request is not received or decoded unless
+-- | The body of a 'Request' is not received or decoded unless
 -- this function is invoked.
 --
--- It is an error to try to use the look functions for a POST\/PUT
--- request with out first calling this function.
+-- It is an error to try to use the look functions for a
+-- 'Request' with out first calling this function.
 --
 -- It is ok to call 'decodeBody' at the beginning of every request:
 --
@@ -588,7 +588,7 @@
 -- >         (Right a) | otherwise -> errorHandler "invalid"
 --
 -- NOTE: you must call 'decodeBody' prior to calling this function if
--- the request method is POST or PUT.
+-- the request method is POST, PUT, PATCH, etc.
 getDataFn :: (HasRqData m, ServerMonad m) =>
              RqData a -- ^ 'RqData' monad to evaluate
           -> m (Either [String] a) -- ^ return 'Left' errors or 'Right' a
@@ -600,7 +600,7 @@
 -- or 'mzero' on failure.
 --
 -- NOTE: you must call 'decodeBody' prior to calling this function if
--- the request method is POST or PUT.
+-- the request method is POST, PUT, PATCH, etc.
 withDataFn :: (HasRqData m, MonadPlus m, ServerMonad m) => RqData a -> (a -> m r) -> m r
 withDataFn fn handle = getDataFn fn >>= either (const mzero) handle
 
@@ -630,14 +630,14 @@
 -- >         (Right a) | otherwise -> errorHandler "invalid"
 --
 -- NOTE: you must call 'decodeBody' prior to calling this function if
--- the request method is POST or PUT.
+-- the request method is POST, PUT, PATCH, etc.
 getData :: (HasRqData m, ServerMonad m, FromData a) => m (Either [String] a)
 getData = getDataFn fromData
 
 -- | similar to 'getData' except it calls a subhandler on success or 'mzero' on failure.
 --
 -- NOTE: you must call 'decodeBody' prior to calling this function if
--- the request method is POST or PUT.
+-- the request method is POST, PUT, PATCH, etc.
 withData :: (HasRqData m, FromData a, MonadPlus m, ServerMonad m) => (a -> m r) -> m r
 withData = withDataFn fromData