tonyg / reversehttp
watch download tarball
public
Forks6Right
Watchers134Right
Description: A dynamic, ReST-style means of enrolment and participation in an HTTP network; a dynamically-configurable "Remote CGI" service. Joining the World Wide Web as an HTTP server has been an ad-hoc, manual process. By using the protocol defined here, programs can provide services to the Web just as easily as they request services from the Web.
Homepage: http://www.reversehttp.net/
Clone URL: git://github.com/tonyg/reversehttp.git
name age
history
message
file .gitignore Thu Jul 16 01:00:37 -0700 2009 Ignore maveny target dir [Tony Garnock-Jones]
file Makefile Tue Jul 14 08:23:42 -0700 2009 Add distclean target [Tony Garnock-Jones]
file NOTES Wed Jun 17 00:03:59 -0700 2009 Implement path-based claims, as well as vhost-b... [Tony Garnock-Jones]
file README.md Fri Jul 10 22:02:47 -0700 2009 Add README. [Tony Garnock-Jones]
directory deps/ Sun Mar 08 15:24:18 -0700 2009 Initial git commit from old mercurial repository. [Tony Garnock-Jones]
directory doc/ Sun Aug 23 12:21:25 -0700 2009 Correct my homepage URL. [Tony Garnock-Jones]
directory priv/ Tue Aug 04 00:46:26 -0700 2009 Store and log the requesting client's IP and po... [Tony Garnock-Jones]
directory src/ Wed Jun 17 00:07:36 -0700 2009 Avoid mentioning localhost.lshift.net, now that... [Tony Garnock-Jones]
file start-dev.sh Sun Mar 08 15:24:18 -0700 2009 Initial git commit from old mercurial repository. [Tony Garnock-Jones]
file start.sh Sun Mar 08 15:24:18 -0700 2009 Initial git commit from old mercurial repository. [Tony Garnock-Jones]
directory support/ Sun Mar 08 15:24:18 -0700 2009 Initial git commit from old mercurial repository. [Tony Garnock-Jones]
README.md

Making the web symmetric

ReverseHttp is an implementation of the specifications hosted at http://www.reversehttp.net:

  • ReverseHttp: a dynamic, ReST-style means of enrolment and participation in an HTTP network. The message/http and application/http MIME types defined by RFC 2616 are used to build a dynamically-configurable "Remote CGI" service.

  • RelayHttp: a protocol for tunnelling HTTP traffic over HTTP, with the goal of providing portable, general, securable access to the World Wide Web for programs running in restricted environments, including Javascript programs running in browsers.

Joining the World Wide Web as an HTTP server has been an ad-hoc, manual process. By using the ReverseHttp protocol, programs can provide services to the Web just as easily as they request services from the Web.

Code overview

  • src/ holds the server implementation, written in Erlang using Mochiweb.

  • priv/www/ holds the Javascript client implementation and demos.

  • priv/java/ holds the Java client implementation.

  • priv/python/ holds the Python client implementation.

Building and running ReverseHttp

Run make. If this succeeds, run ./start-dev.sh.

By default, the server will now be running on port 8000, serving content from priv/www. Try http://localhost:8000/: you should see an index of demos.

To change the port number, edit reversehttp.app. The version in src/ is the master copy, but the version in ebin/ is the one that's used to actually run the software.

Software License

ReverseHttp is open-source code, licensed under the very liberal MIT license:

Copyright (c) 2008, 2009 Tony Garnock-Jones <tonyg@lshift.net>
Copyright (c) 2008, 2009 LShift Ltd. <query@lshift.net>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy,
modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies
of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.