Webserver with custom API and file transfer

George · 2020-06-19 13:49:03

Hello!

As i remember "REST-tester" demo, client-server communication supports few protocols that work pretty good when both client and server are pascal applications.
But, what is the best way to create web server that supports:
- Non administrative privileges (not require admin account (or UAC elevation) / root)
- Multi threading
- Windows + Linux
- Custom method based API (some code that can handle request and return response with custom http headers)
- File transfer (ability to return stream data)
- http/https (https is not mandatory)
- Standalone application (no additional software, like nginx)

Where client applications are:
- Browsers (SPA)
- Other applications that can send http/https requests (not pascal based, without JavaScript support).

THttpApiServer is a way to go? Does it fit?

Last edited by George (2020-06-19 14:51:19)

ab · 2020-06-19 15:32:56

THttpApiServer is Windows-only.
But in fact, you don't need to worry about the actual server used.

Just use a TSQLHttpServer class, and it would be able to use the best kind of HTTP server on the computer and the network.

George · 2020-06-19 15:37:20

Thanks, will try.

Does TSQLHttpServer work on windows and linux as well?
And supports described above features, both for win and linux?

Last edited by George (2020-06-19 16:15:15)

ab · 2020-06-19 16:27:31

Yes, it does.

George · 2020-06-26 15:50:15

So far so good)

Can't find how to send stream data using THttpServerRequest object.
For example, to send image or font file...

I use TSQLHttpServer, with SQLHttpServer.HttpServer.OnRequest event.

Last edited by George (2020-06-26 15:53:04)

ab · 2020-06-26 15:56:03

You can send a static file, using the STATICFILE_CONTENT_TYPE as header.

See how TSQLRestServerURIContext.ReturnFile is implemented.

George · 2020-06-26 16:11:01

I saw, but i have no static files on disk.
All UI files are packed to single content file and embedded as resource.
As result, all files are available directly from memory.
Sad, that was nice idea to keep folder empty, hide files from direct access, and provide fast access without disk IO.

Maybe TSQLRestServerURIContext.ReturnBlob will help.

Last edited by George (2020-06-26 16:20:55)

mpv · 2020-06-26 16:43:32

@George - may be mORMotBP is do the things you need?

Last edited by mpv (2020-06-26 16:43:44)

George · 2020-06-26 16:51:05

Based on description, yes
Thanks!

George · 2020-09-11 12:59:55

Accept-Encoding is missing in Ctxt: THttpServerRequest
Tested with MSEdge (chromium) and Firefox.
I'm performing request to server, browser sends some request headers,
almost all headers are present in Ctxt.InHeaders, except "Connection" and "Accept-Encoding".
Is it some feature? How i can ensure that client accepts gzip?

  function RequestRouter(Ctxt: THttpServerRequest): cardinal;
  begin
    WriteLn(Ctxt.InHeaders);
    {
     Host: 127.0.0.1:8080
     Pragma: no-cache
     Cache-Control: no-cache
     DNT: 1
     Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1
     User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/85.0.4183.102 Safari/537.36 Edg/85.0.564.51
     Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8,application/signed-exchange;v=b3;q=0.9
     Sec-Fetch-Site: cross-site
     Sec-Fetch-Mode: navigate
     Sec-Fetch-User: ?1
     Sec-Fetch-Dest: document
     Accept-Language: en-GB,en;q=0.9,en-US;q=0.8,ru;q=0.7
    }
  end;

  SQLHttpServer := TSQLHttpServer.Create('8080', [], '+', TSQLHttpServerOptions.useHttpSocket, 30 {Thread pool}, TSQLHttpServerSecurity.secNone);
  SQLHttpServer.AccessControlAllowOrigin := '*';
  SQLHttpServer.HttpServer.OnRequest := RequestRouter;

ab · 2020-09-11 13:24:43

Yes, it is a feature, to reduce the memory allocation and speedup the header parsing.
Encoding and Connection headers are meant to be handled in the HTTP server itself, not in the consuming method.
For instance, gzip encoding is done in THttpServer.

You can change this default behavior via the THttpServer.HeadersNotFiltered property.

George · 2020-09-11 15:50:57

Thanks! Exactly what i looking for

mpv · 2020-09-11 15:59:02

Yes, this is a little bit unexpected behavior - see THttpSocket.GetHeader for complete list of truncated headers in case THttpServer.HeadersNotFiltered is false (by default)

George · 2020-10-08 20:28:03

How can i ensure that server has been started?
If i use port that already in use, i see error in debugger, but it happen outside of try except block (seems, in separate thread, some time later).
About WaitStarted, documentation says:

Ensure the HTTP server thread is actually bound to the specified port.
You should call and check this method result

But this is just a procedure, there is no result.

   try
    if Assigned(SecondHttpServer) then
     begin
      SecondHttpServer.Shutdown();
      FreeAndNil(SecondHttpServer);
     end;
    // Create new instance
    SecondHttpServer := THttpServer.Create(NewPort.ToString, nil, nil, 'LS', 30 {thread pool}, 0 {disable keep-alive}, True, True);
    SecondHttpServer.OnRequest := RequestRouter;
    SecondHttpServer.Start;
    SecondHttpServer.WaitStarted(10);
    Except
    on E: Exception do
      // Something went wrong
   end;

Last edited by George (2020-10-08 20:35:56)

mORMot Open Source

#1 2020-06-19 13:49:03

Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#2 2020-06-19 15:32:56

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#3 2020-06-19 15:37:20

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#4 2020-06-19 16:27:31

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#5 2020-06-26 15:50:15

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#6 2020-06-26 15:56:03

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#7 2020-06-26 16:11:01

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#8 2020-06-26 16:43:32

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#9 2020-06-26 16:51:05

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#10 2020-09-11 12:59:55

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#11 2020-09-11 13:24:43

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#12 2020-09-11 15:50:57

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#13 2020-09-11 15:59:02

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

#14 2020-10-08 20:28:03

Re: Webserver with custom API and file transfer

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