Add a roadmap

ROADMAP.md

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+ROADMAP
+=======
+
+This document explains in as much details as possible the
+list of planned changes and work to be done on the Cowboy
+server. It is non-exhaustive and subject to change. Items
+are not ordered.
+
+*   Write more, better examples.
+
+    The first step would be to port misultin's examples
+    to Cowboy. Then these examples could be completed with
+    examples for Cowboy specific features.
+
+    The extend/cowboy_examples is to be used for this. As
+    it is a separate repository, we can organize the file
+    structure as appropriate. Ideally we would have one
+    complete example per folder.
+
+    Examples should be commented. They may or may not be
+    used for writing the user guides.
+
+*   Write user guides.
+
+    We currently have good API documentation, but no step
+    by step user guides.
+
+*   Write more, better tests.
+
+    Amongst the areas less tested there is protocol upgrades
+    and the REST handler.
+
+    Current tests should be completed with unit tests
+    where applicable. We should probably also test the
+    dependencies used, like erlang:decode_packet/3.
+
+    While eunit and ct tests are fine, some parts of the
+    code could benefit from PropEr tests.
+
+*   Continuous performance testing.
+
+    Initially dubbed the Horse project, Cowboy could benefit
+    from a continuous performance testing tool that would
+    allow us to easily compare the impact of the changes we
+    are introducing, similar to what the Phoronix test suite
+    allows.
+
+    Depending on the test it may be interesting to compare
+    Cowboy to other servers and eventually take ideas from
+    the servers that outperform Cowboy for the task being tested.
+
+*   Improve HTTP/1.0 support.
+
+    Most of the work on Cowboy has been done with HTTP/1.1
+    in mind. But there is still a need for HTTP/1.0 code in
+    Cowboy. The server code should be reviewed and tested
+    to ensure compatibility with remaining HTTP/1.0 products.
+
+*   HTTP 100 Continue support.
+
+    Tools like curl expect a 100 Continue before sending a
+    request body by default.
+
+*   Content-Encoding support.
+
+    Cowboy should be able to send encoded content automatically.
+    The default should be to encode, but the developer must be
+    able to override this default either for the whole listener
+    or just for a single reply.
+
+*   Improve body reading API.
+
+    We want to have various different things for reading the
+    body. First, there should be raw functions for the different
+    ways to read the body: basic, transfer encoded, multipart.
+    Each should allow us to limit the size of what is read.
+
+    On top of these functions there should be two more
+    advanced functions: one would return the result of parsing
+    a x-www-form-urlencoded body; the other would parse a
+    multipart request, save files from the multipart data to
+    a temporary location and return a proplist of values if any
+    along with the files details. This behavior is similar to
+    what is done automatically by PHP with its $_FILES array.
+
+    The advanced functions are of course here for convenience
+    only and it should be trivial to reimplement them directly
+    in a Cowboy application if needed.
+
+*   Complete the work on Websockets.
+
+    Now that the Autobahn test suite is available (make inttests),
+    we have a definite way to know whether Cowboy's implementation
+    of Websockets is right. The work can thus be completed. The
+    remaining tasks are proper UTF8 handling and fragmentation.
+
+*   SPDY support.
+
+    While SPDY probably won't be added directly to Cowboy, work
+    has been started on making Cowboy use SPDY.
+
+*   Hooks.
+
+    Customizable hooks would allow the developer to extend Cowboy
+    easily. Two kinds of hooks are needed: before dispatching the
+    request, and before sending a reply.
+
+    The first would allow us to apply site-wide functions like
+    authentication or request logging and modify the Req if needed.
+
+    The second is more interesting for response logging or to
+    filter the replies, for example to send custom error pages.
+
+*   Transport upgrades.
+
+    Some protocols allow an upgrade from TCP to SSL without
+    closing the connection. This is currently not possible
+    through the Cowboy API.
+
+*   Resizing the acceptor pool.
+
+    We should be able to add more acceptors to a pool but also
+    to remove some of them as needed.
+
+*   Simplified dispatch list.
+
+    For convenience purposes, the dispatch list should allow
+    lists instead of binaries. The lists can be converted to
+    binary by Cowboy at listener initialization.
+
+    There has also been discussion on allowing the dispatch
+    list to be hierarchical.
+
+*   Add Transport:secure/0.
+
+    Currently Cowboy checks if a connection is secure by
+    checking if its name is 'ssl'. This isn't a very modular
+    solution,  adding an API function that returns whether
+    a connection is secure would fix that issue.