CppHttpClientServer Repository

Synchronous HTTP communication channel

Quick Status

Code functions correctly

no known defects but performance issues
as server is built with STA model.

Note

implements small subset of HTTP 1.0

Demonstration code

yes

Documentation

yes

Test cases

no, but planned

Static library

no, but planned

Build requires

C++17 option, Windows

Planned design changes

- Replace STA server with MTA
- May eventually replace with
Boost::Asio

1.0 Contents

CppHttpClientServer is a "getting started" prototype for two components: an HttpClient and an HttpServer. The goal is to make these as small and simple as practical so they can be easily used in distributed applications.

The HttpServer is not intended to be a website server, but rather, an endpoint between two communicating applications, that use HTTP messaging.

2.0 Current Design

The CppHttpServer uses a single threaded apartment model, e.g., it hosts a thread-safe blocking queue, which all CppHttpClients share. I used that because I already had servers built with that model, so I just started with one of them. However, that has serious performance implications. The server should use a Multi-threaded apartment model because it uses a synchronous protocol. The client waits for a reply. With STA that will keep other clients waiting until the server finishes other enqueued tasks.

3.0 Status

This is a Prototype - not ready for Prime Time

The CppHttpServer will serve static pages to Chrome and FireFox, but has serious performance issues with multiple clients. I don't recommend spending much time with this code until it matures.

Once this code has evolved enough to be useful, I will start working on a ThreadPool based model for CppHttpServer. I think this will eventually be a very useful facility.

If C++ eventually standardizes on a networking library (probably something like Boost::Asio), I will probably use that for the core implementaion code, wrapped by a Comm class with Sender and Receiver.