Lab 2 - HTTP, caching and content negotiation

Story

Imagine, you're a developer at TwoLines GmbH, a startup from Zurich, Switzerland. The idea of the startup is pretty simple - you develop best-in-class browser experience, with privacy and security in mind. One day, you receive a message from the CTO, Mike.

Hey there!

Tomorrow we'll have a presentation for a really biiiig investor.
They say they don't need PPTs. They want at least some proof-of-concept for secure browsers for their toasters.
Can you share with me the executable we used last time for demo?

Cheers,
Mike

Yeah, the catch is toasters don't have any browser exeprience! Nonetheless, you can't remember where you've saved the executable, so you start writing it from scratch.

Task

1. You have to write a command line program, using go2web executable as a starting point;
2. The program should implement at least the following CLI:

go2web -u <URL>         # make an HTTP request to the specified URL and print the response
go2web -s <search-term> # make an HTTP request to search the term using your favorite search engine and print top 10 results
go2web -h               # show this help

3. The responses from request should be human-readable (e.g. no HTML tags in the output)

Special conditions

Any programming language can be used, but not the built-in/third-party libraries for making HTTP requests. GUI applications aren't allowed. The app has to be launched with go2web executable.

Grading

Points:

• executable with -u or -s options - +5 points
• executable with -u and -s options - +6 points

You can get +1 extra point:

• if results/links from search engine can be accessed (using your CLI);
• for implementing HTTP request redirects

You can get +2 extra points:

• for implementing an HTTP cache mechanism;
• for implementing content negotiation e.g. by accepting and handling both JSON and HTML content types.

Hints

• Before opting for some language, make sure you have the right tools: CLI parser, HTML/JSON parser, support for TCP sockets;
• For CLI you can use built-in libraries or even Bash built-in getopts;
• Use third-party libraries for parsing HTML and presenting it;
• While developing, you can launch a local server using python3 -m http.server to test & debug the app.
• For HTTP cache you'll need either an in-memory store or file access.
• To avoid if-elses in content negotiation, use your knowledge of OOP.
• <search-term> can either be a single word or all words following -s argument.