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7 - 4 HTTPServer

An HTTP server is software that understands URLs and the HTTP protocol to deliver web page content to browsers. It interacts with browsers by receiving HTTP requests, processing them, and sending back HTTP responses containing the requested content. To create an HTTP server from scratch, one would use socket programming to: 1) Create a socket and bind it to a port to listen for requests. 2) Accept connections from clients and receive their requests. 3) Construct an HTTP response with the requested content and send it back to the client. 4) Close the connection once the response is sent.

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75 views14 pages

7 - 4 HTTPServer

An HTTP server is software that understands URLs and the HTTP protocol to deliver web page content to browsers. It interacts with browsers by receiving HTTP requests, processing them, and sending back HTTP responses containing the requested content. To create an HTTP server from scratch, one would use socket programming to: 1) Create a socket and bind it to a port to listen for requests. 2) Accept connections from clients and receive their requests. 3) Construct an HTTP response with the requested content and send it back to the client. 4) Close the connection once the response is sent.

Uploaded by

har ma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HTTP Server Design and

Implementation from Scratch

Network Programming (UCS 413)


HTTP Server: Introduction
• An HTTP Server is software that understands URLs (web
addresses) and HTTP (the protocol browser uses to view
pages).
• An HTTP Server can be accessed through the domain names
of the websites it stores and it delivers the content of these
hosted websites to the end user’s device.
HTTP Server: Introduction
• Lets have a look at the interaction between
Server and Web Browser.

Outline of client-server interaction


HTTP Client Request
• Client needs to connect to the server every time.
• When we want to connect to the server, we type some URL/Address
of the website in the browser
• To display the page, browser fetches the file index.html from a web
server.
• For example, www.example.com (Defaults: port 80, file index.html,
http protocol).
• On entering link www.example.com in the web browser, the web
browser re-constructs the URL/Address as:
http://www.example.com:80

• This reconstructed URL web-browsers send to the servers every time


we navigate the internet pages.
• If the server is configured to certain default pages. Like, server has a
default web page, it is displayed when we visit a website on that
server.
• That web page is decided by the name of the file. Some servers
have public.html and some will have index.html.
HTTP Client Request
• Lets consider index.html as default page.
• When browser Sends HTTP request to server, a HTTP
header is sent.

• This HTTP Request is received at Server’s end, which is


processed by the server
HTTP Server Response
• The client sent some headers to HTTP server and
expects same in-return.
• This is the HTTP response format the web-browser is
expecting from Server
HTTP Server Using Socket
Programming
Step 1: Creating socket file descriptor

if ((server_fd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) == 0)


{
perror("In socket");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}

// This is a TCP socket


HTTP Server Using Socket
Programming
Step 2: Create a struct sockaddr_in address;
#define PORT 80 //define with header files

address.sin_family = AF_INET;
address.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY;
address.sin_port = htons( PORT );
HTTP Server Using Socket
Programming
Step 3: Bind server_fd and address

if (bind(server_fd, (struct sockaddr *)&address,


sizeof(address) ) <0)
{
perror("In bind");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
HTTP Server Using Socket
Programming
Step 4: Listen on server_fd

if (listen(server_fd, 10) < 0)


{
perror("In listen");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}

• Here 10 is queue_limit, i.e. number of active


participants that can “wait” for a connection
HTTP Server Using Socket Programming
Step 5: Accept client request using accept()

int addrlen = sizeof(address);

while(1) // infinite while loop for accepting request of different clients


{
if ((new_socket = accept(server_fd, (struct sockaddr *)&address,
(socklen_t*)&addrlen))<0)
{
perror("In accept");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}

} //end while(1)
• Note that “new_socket “ will be used for further communication
HTTP Server Using Socket Programming
Step 6: Read and Print data received from client

while(1)
{
if ((new_socket = accept(server_fd,………
……………………………………………………………..

char buffer[30000] = {0};


valread = read( new_socket , buffer, 30000);
printf("%s\n",buffer );

} //end while(1)
HTTP Server Using Socket Programming
Step 7: Create HTTP Response in a String
char *server_response = "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\nContent-Type:
text/html\nContent-Length: 72\n\n <!DOCTYPE
HTML><HTML><body><h1>Hello Thapar
Institute</h1></body></HTML>";
while(1)
{
…………………..
}
• Here, we are sending HTTP response header appended
with HTML content <html><body><h1>Hello Thapar
Institute</h2></body></html>
HTTP Server Using Socket Programming
Step 7: Send the Response to client and close new_socket
char *server_response = "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\nContent-Type:
text/html\nContent-Length: 72\n\n <!DOCTYPE
HTML><HTML><body><h1>Hello Thapar Institute
</h1></body></HTML>";
while(1)
{
………accept()…………..
…….print client data….
write(new_socket , server_response , strlen(server_response));
printf("-------Response sent to client---------\n");
close(new_socket);
}//end while(1)

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