CrossPlatForm Web Server in C++ (Windows, Linux)

This project built from scratch without any third party libraries. It has its own data structures including String, SinglyLinkedList, HashTable, ByteBuffer and more.

PREVIEW: https://web-server-mkgs.onrender.com

This preview is running from a docker container check the Dockerfile for more information.

Main Classes:

1. Socket.
2. Server.
3. Client.
4. HttpRequest.
5. HttpResponse.
6. WebServer

Some Details About These Classes :

• a Server class has full access to all the clients sockets.

• a Client Class can control only his own socket from a Server class.

• a HttpRequest class can access a socket from Client class.

• a Response class can access a socket from Client class.

---

Features

1. the ability to set a static path (directory) where files will be served if matches the available mimeTypes.
2. Handle a request for a specific path by using a callback that give you control over request and response objects.
3. dynamic path, which mean you can pass params through your path. and more features will be comming soon. like a json library that will help you generate a custom response for an api business logic.
4. cross platform support currently (windows, linux).

Code Example

#include "WebServer.h"

#include "base/HashTable.h"
#include "base/String.h"


void Home(HttpRequest* req,HttpResponse* res){
    res->status(200);
    res->send("<h1>Home!</h1>");
}

void About(HttpRequest* req,HttpResponse* res){
    res->status(200);
    res->send("<h1>About!</h1>");
}

void DynamicPathHandler(HttpRequest* req, HttpResponse* res){
    res->status(200);
    res->send(req->params.get("username"));
}

int main()
{
    WebServer server;
    server.use_static_path("public");
    server.get("/", Home);
    server.get("/About", About);
    // you can have multiple params through url as you can see
    // in this example we have two params 'username' and 'id'.
    // you can access the params from req class.
    // like this: req->params.get(<param>)
    server.get("/users/:username/dashboard/:id", DynamicPathHandler);
    server.listen("8080");
    return 0;
}

as you can see in the code, first create an Object with type of WebServer and register the paths you wonna server.

    // Callback function must be in type void (HttpRequest*, HttpResponse*)
    void callback(HttpRequest* req,HttpResponse* res){
        res->send("<h1>HelloWorld!</h1>");
    }

    // Path must equal the request if it uppercase the request will
    // only apply to uppercase and the same for lower case and must
    // start with '/' character.
    server.get(<path>, callback);

currently we support only get method, and it will be extended to other methods.

---

Build

    cd <project-directory>

then

    cmake -S . -B C:/Users/amazon/Desktop/WebServer/output 
        "-G<generator>" "-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug"
        "-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER:STRING=<c-compile-path>" 
        "-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER:STRING=<cpp-compile-path>"

and build :

    cmake --build output --target all

Example how to use these commands, like in my case i use MinGw MakeFiles generator :

    cd C:/Users/abdelfetah-dev/Desktop/WebServer

    cmake -S . -B C:/Users/abdelfetah-dev/Desktop/WebServer/output 
        "-GMinGW Makefiles" "-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug" 
        "-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER:STRING=C:/Program Files/CodeBlocks/MinGW/bin/gcc.exe" 
        "-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER:STRING=C:/Program Files/CodeBlocks/MinGW/bin/g++.exe"

    cmake --build output --target all

    "./output/WebServer.exe"