HTTP Server

This is a simple server built with Java 10. It can receive, parse, handle, and respond to HTTP 1.1 requests. For more detailed functionality and limitations, see Supported Functionality.

Dependencies

• Cucumber
• Gradle 4.12
• Java 10

Starting the Server

On Default Port and Directory

1. Navigate to the root directory
2. Run the following gradle tasks

   gradle assemble
   gradle startDemoServer
   

• The default port is 8888
• The default directory from which to serve files is the following directory: src/test/resources/demoFiles

On Custom Port and Custom Data Store

1. Navigate to the root directory.

2. Create a JAR file using Gradle. This will create the build directory.

   gradle jar
   

3. Navigate to the directory where the jar file is located.

   cd build/libs
   

4. Run the JAR file with a port flag (-port) and number as well as a directory flag (-dir) and a directory path.

   java -jar http-server.jar -port 4444 -dir src/test/resources/demoFiles 
   

5. Fire away at the server! Using your browser, cURL, Postman, etc., navigate to http://localhost:PORT_NUMBER

Running Tests

Unit tests covering this project are written with the JUnit testing framework. Acceptance tests are written using Cucumber. To run acceptance tests, the server must be running on port 8888 and serving content from src/test/resources/testFiles:

1. Navigate to the root directory.
2. Run the following gradle tasks:

   gradle assemble
   gradle startTestServer
   

3. Run gradle test.
4. To automatically rerun tests after changing the code, run gradle -t test to simultaneously build the output and run all unit tests.

Supported Functionality

Endpoints

URL	Supported Methods	Supported Media
/*	OPTIONS	N/A
/api/form	OPTIONS, POST	application/x-www-url-form-encoded
/api/people	OPTIONS, POST	application/JSON, text/plain
/api/query	GET, OPTIONS	N/A
/echo	GET, OPTIONS	N/A

Static Files

To determine which HTTP methods can be applied to a static resource, you can make an OPTIONS request to that resource.

OPTIONS

All static files and endpoints can handle OPTIONS requests.

GET

All static files can handle GET requests.

HEAD

All static files can handle HEAD requests.

PUT

A PUT request to an existing static resource will overwrite the resource using the request entity. A PUT request to a nonexistent resource will create that resource using the request entity.

PATCH

Currently, only JSON resources can be PATCHed, and the patch document must be of type application/json-patch+json.

The server's handling of JSON Patch is limited. Arrays cannot be added as values or modified. Additionally, nested JSON objects cannot be added as values, but individual key/value pairs in an existing, nested JSON object can be manipulated using any of the JSON Patch operations.

DELETE

All static files can handle DELETE requests.

Middleware

The server makes use of a chain of middleware classes to operate on requests and responses. All Middleware classes extend the Middleware class. The middleware chain can be configured in the #getMiddlewareChain method of the MiddlewareConfig class.

The middleware chain currently consists of the following classes:

1. CorsMiddleware
2. Logger
3. Authenticator

Protected Routes

Routes can optionally be protected with HTTP authentication. Credentials for a protected route are set in #setUpAuthenticator in the MiddlewareConfig class. Routes that should be protected can also be added within this same method.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a feature branch using Git.
3. Write your feature in the src/main/java directory.
4. Write a unit test (covering every new public method) in the src/test/java directory.
5. Run gradle build to ensure that the application successfully builds and passes all tests.
6. Create a pull request.