Re: [boost] CGI / FastCGI library update

Subject: Re: [boost] CGI / FastCGI library update
From: Darren Garvey (darren.garvey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-05-19 19:46:09

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the comments.

On 19 May 2010 15:44, Phil Endecott <spam_from_boost_dev_at_[hidden]>wrote:

> - I think you must have quite a few useful algorithms hidden as
> implementation details (e.g. URL %-encoding, base64, multipart MIME etc)
> that would be more useful if they were exposed.  I.e. people could use them
> even if they didn't want to use the rest of the library.
>

I don't think these really belong in a "CGI" library, it doesn't feel right.

boost::url::encode() and boost::url::decode() make more sense to me than
boost::cgi::url_encode()...

One of my goals is to expose more of the internals of the library to allow
users to, for example have fine-grained control over I/O. As you say,
there's no reason you should have to use it all.

> - Saving uploaded files on the server's filesystem doesn't seem the right
> approach.  Ideally, the handler would start before all of the uploaded file
> had been received, e.g. if I upload a 100 MB video, the server would check
> my username and the MIME type for the content and maybe look for a magic
> number at the start of the data stream so that it could send an error
> response without waiting for all of the data.

You can do some of what you want like so:

fcgi::request request;
// accept the request.
request.load(fcgi::parse_env | parse_cookies);
// check the username / password
if (ok) request.load(fcgi::parse_post);
// all MIME data has been read and parsed now... drat.

I'll try and find some time to add finer-grained control in "parse_post", so
mime parts can be interogated and dealt with individually.

> - As I've said before, my preferred method when I don't want a
> process-per-request CGI is to use a stand-alone HTTP daemon and Apache's
> mod_proxy.  It would be great if you could support this.  I believe that
> asio has an HTTP server example; could that be coerced into doing this for
> you?
>

This would certainly be nice. I've not used mod_proxy before, I don't
support you could send me an example configuration file to get it working?
Those working on a HTTP networking library (cpp-netlib) have developed the
asio example further, which is intriguing too.

Cheers,
Darren