Dr. Dobb's Journal - November 2008 - (Page 32)

Core Technology BUILDING YOUR OWN WEB SERVER Webster’s software is written entirely in C++ with no underlying operating system with exploitable security flaws no Logging Hostname is specified, UDP packets with logging information are broadcast. You have two ways to make configuration changes: You can remove the SD memory card from the server and connect it to your computer via an SD card reader and make changes to the config2.dat file directly; or you can edit a local copy of config2.dat and use FTP to update the server’s configuration. Either way, once the configuration changes have been made and the Reset button hit, Webster2 should come back up with the new configuration operational. Once you have determined your configuration requirements and have them coded in the config2.dat file, you can start working on your website’s content. Remember, you should have a file in the // Webster2 Configuration File - Version: 1.1 // NOTES: // 1. Case is significant // 2. No blank lines allowed; Use // for comment lines and formatting // 3. Be careful with spaces around usernames and passwords // 4. Don't use tabs // Realm Name: Your website's Name Hostname: YourHostname Use DHCP: yes // Use Authentication: no Username: roy Password: rogers Pages Requiring Authentication: page1.html,page2.html,page3html // Use FTP Security: no FTPUsername: rogers FTPPassword: roy // Use NTP: yes NTP Servers: 207.200.81.113,164.67.62.194 Time Zone: -6 Use DST: yes // // Static IP Addresses - Only necessary if not using DHCP // Static IP Address: 192.168.0.32 Static Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Static Gateway Address: 192.168.0.1 Static DNS Address: 205.171.3.65 // // Use UDP Logging // Use Logging: yes Logging Hostname: your logging hostname root directory named index.html or index.htm as this will be the entry point for your website. Other than the index file, how you arrange your HTML files and other website content is up to you. You have a full FAT filesystem on your web server so filename case is important and long filenames are permitted. Also, you can organize your files into subdirectories if that fits your style. In this iteration of the web server software, I wanted to have some form of logging so I could see when and by whom my website was accessed. My first inclination was to use a log file in the filesystem, but I rejected this approach as flash memory has a large but finite number of write cycles. Writing to a log file for every website access could damage the flash over time. Instead, I decided to log across the network to another machine. I used NB’s SysLog function in the web server code and NB’s UDP Terminal Tool on the remote machine to see all accesses to my website. It is pretty cool. System logging uses UDP port 514. Within the GET processing code in the web server, I turn Webster2’s access LED off/on. This causes the LED to flash whenever my website is accessed. Finally, if you want to modify and/or extend the Webster2’s web server software I provide, you need to create a new project within the Eclipse development environment and import all of my code. With this as the starting point, you can make all of the changes you desire. Conclusion Webster2 was fun and easy to build and helps me conserve energy. Webster2 is the fourth-generation web server I have designed and built and is fully capable of supporting all my current web server needs. It has the stability and performance necessary for serving pictures, large documents, music, and video files for my family and friends. Webster2 costs about $130 to build, but you will have the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself. That can earn you some serious bragging rights with your high-tech buddies. DDJ Example 1: Typical configuration file. 32 Dr. Dobb’s Journal l www.ddj.com l November 2008 http://www.ddj.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Dr. Dobb's Journal - November 2008

Dr. Dobb's Journal - November 2008 Contents Friday Night Fish Fry Alia Vox Developer Diaries Developer's Notebook Saving Open Source Conversations iPhone Building Your Own Web Server Green Telnet What's New In Boost Threads? Testing Service Oriented Architectures Test Case Generation, UML, and Eclipse Unit Testing Web Services C3 Programming The Agile Edge Swaine's Flames Effective Concurrency

Dr. Dobb's Journal - November 2008

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