I want to create a small web server in c++ with http-parser from here nodejs/http-parser, I downloaded and I compiled what should I do next?
First of all, you need a way to communicate using TCP/IP in order to implement the HTTP server; depending on your case, you may also need to use other protocols, like UDP (for instance, if you need to resolve a domain name, you will typically use DNS) or ICMP.
If your application is running by an Operating System, take a look at its documentation about the networking facilities it can provide you. For instance, many operating systems provides a POSIX sockets API that will help you dealing with network devices and protocols.
If you prefer, you can use one of the networking libraries already written, provided they support your environment. They can help you with a useful abstraction of the network, so you can concentrate better on your application.
On the other hand, if your application will not be running by an Operating System, the first thing to do is to find some internet protocol suite that you will be able to use in your particular environment.
If you don't find one, you obviously need to implement everything by yourself.
Related
I am trying to create an application that can run as a service and another program to communicate with it (client)
i can find plenty of sample code about services but nothing about programs that interact with services
can someone please link some examples?
Sounds like you could and maybe should use TCP sockets. Or at least that would be the easiest and most straight forward.
Alternatively since it sounds like both client and service are on the same computer you could use some form of IPC (interprocess communication). So depending on your OS you may decide to use IPC instead.
I am developing 2 Windows services, one of them will send pictures and word files to other and other service will give a string answer. That services are in same computer.
I will develop same program's Linux version also.
Which way is the best for communication between services in Linux and Windows.
By the way I am developing that services with C++.
There're different options for your task:
Network. Establish TCP connection between your services, with service that asks as a client and service that answers as a server. It's possible to implement cross-platform solution using Boost.Asio or any other portable network library.
Shared memory. You can implement inter-process communication using shared memory. Cross-platform library: Boost.Interprocess.
Pipes. I don't know cross-platform library for this.
I would recommend to use TCP communication as more flexible solution.
I would suggest reading up on C++ sockets. You're probably going to want to use TCP sockets, since you want to ensure that the data being transferred does so correctly.
Try checking these links out:
Linux Sockets
Windows Sockets
You should search for IPC.
There are a lot of possibilities for inter process communication. Because you are not very specific about your problem and your requirements but I would suggest to take a look at boost::interprocess.
As long as you are sure that both services run on the same machine this will do it.
If you want to switch to a distributed approach you need something different.
Like XML-RPC, thrift or corba. Just to mention some possibilities.
Our team is in the design phase of a client-server database software project. We're intending to develop a single database server system, probably using MySQL with a database interface/abstraction layer, possibly written in Java. We will also (eventually) have multiple client programs talking to the server. So the question is, what do we use for communication between the server and what could end up being several totally different clients? (Think Android, iPhone, desktop, or even a Web server, forwarding to a browser.)
The two main camps right now are arguing between using:
1. completely custom socket software, because it should allow system independence,
2. exposing a Web service of some kind, because it would provide higher-level functionality
Any ideas? I know "Web service" and "Web API" are very general terms that sort of evoke nauseating buzzword-crazy five-year-old tech media, but they are definitely a valid option. Right?
Plain socket APIs have the advantage of working anywhere. The disadvantage is that they're hard to do right.
Since it sounds like you're going to end up with a database-like API over the network, you should at least consider oData.
I have a C++ application that currently uses a simple TCP/IP client/server model to communicate between 2 instances of itself. This works fine on a local network, but I would like this to be used across an external network. Currently, maybe due to firewall issues, it is not able to connect across an external network.
I am not an expert on networking, but I was thinking about having a dedicated server in the middle acting as a hub for communications. Will this mitigate firewall issues?
How do networked games communicate with each other? Is there usually a server in the middle or is it peer-to-peer?
In any case, I'd appreciate any advice on protocols and infrastructure to implement a network enabled application.
Regards
I think the problem is dedicated to the NAT as mentioned by cnicutar.
Maybe you want to have a look at libupnp for automatic port forwarding in the hardware firewalls (your router at home)
There is no de facto architecture for multiplayer network games. Both client-server (most MMOs, most PC FPS's and RTS's) and Peer-to-Peer (most console games) are valid approaches.
Juoni Smed's survey in his book "Algorithms and Networking for Computer Games" is a pretty good overview of the different architectures in the wild.
For the specific issues you're talking about, your need for a proxy server, as others have noted, is probably down to NAT issues - the two machines you're trying to get talking do not have public IP addresses. If you want to pursue a Peer-to-Peer architecture (or to have one of your clients act as the server, as many modern Client-Server games do) you will need your clients to talk directly to each other. This can be achieved with NAT Traversal, unfortunately this is a fiddly process.
Luckily you can use a modern framework like the excellent Raknet which includes State Synchronisation, Remote Procedure Calls AND NAT Traversal out of the box. It's free for hobbyist use and is incorporated in to several modern industrial-grade game engines.
The bane of modern internet communications is NAT. Due to NAT (which shouldn't be confused with a simple firewall) a large portion of hosts on the internet don't have a public address and thus can't (easily) accept incoming connections. NAT breaks the internet so badly that people are moving to a totally different scheme, with slightly different semantics, just to get rid of it.
There are basically two class of solutions
NAT traversal which is sometimes used for peer-to-peer communication. Usually NAT traversal schemes require some publicly accessible server for brokering the initial connection, but the actual communication is done peer-to-peer
Client-server communication. This is easier (since the server generally should have a publicly accessible address) but also kind of inefficient. For instance, say you've got a peer on the same 10Gb LAN. If you want to send him a file through the server (which happens to be in another country) it's going to take ages instead of seconds.
I'm not sure which one is "generally used". But think of it this way:
If there is the logical need for a "controller" (say 8 people are playing a strategy game) then you probably need a server
If any two peers can logically interact without a "controller", you probably want peer-to-peer communication
If you need to transfer LOTS of data fast (file transfer), you almost surely want p2p.
The easiest way to accomplish what you want is by using sockets(in case you are doing it differently). The way you are connecting your app is usually how it's done. Also if it work sin a local network and it does not over the Internet it must be a firewall issue so try opening ports in your router configuration.
You will have to give more info about your program in order to explain if you should go with peer-to-peer or with a server.
I'm working on a project of which a large part is server side software. I started programming in C++ using the sockets library. But, one of my partners suggested that we use a standard server like IIS, Apache or nginx.
Which one is better to do, in the long run? When I program it in C++, I have direct access to the raw requests where as in the case of using standard servers I need to use a scripting language to handle the requests. In any case, which one is the better option and why?
Also, when it comes to security for things like DDOS attacks etc., do the standard servers already have protection? If I would want to implement it in my socket server, what is the best way?
"Server side software" could mean lots of different things, for example this could be a trivial app which "echoes" everything back on a specific port, to a telnet/ftp server to a webserver running lots of "services".
So where in this gamut of possibilities does your particular application lie? Without further information, it's difficult to make any suggestions, but let's see..
Web Services, i.e. your "server side" requirement is to handle individual requests and respond having done some set of business logic. Typically communication is via SOAP/XML, and this is ideal if you bave web based clients (though nothing prevents your from accessing these services via standalone clients). Typially you host these on web servers as you mentioned, and often they are easiest written in Java (I've yet to come across one that needed to be written in C++!)
Simple web site - slightly different to the above, respods to HTML get/post requests and serves up static or dymanic content (I'm guessing this is not what you're after!)
Standalone server which responds to something specific, here you'd have to implement your own "messaging"/protocols etc. and the server will carry out a specific function on incoming request and potentially send responses back. Key thing here is that the server does something specific, and is not a generic container (at which point 1 makes more sense!)
So where does your application lie? If 1/2 use Java or some scripting language (such as Perl/ASP/JSP etc.) If 3, you can certainly use C++, and if you do, use a suitable abstraction, such as boost::asio and Google Protocol buffers, save yourself a lot of headache...
With regards to security, ofcourse bugs and security holes are found all the time, however the good thing with some of these OS projects is that the community will tackle and fix them. Let's just say, you'll be safer using them than your own custom handrolled imlpementation, the likelyhood that you'll be able to address all the issues that they would have encountered in the years they've been around is very small (no disrespect to your abilities!)
EDIT: now that there's a little more info, here is one possible approach (this is what I've done in the past, and I've jused Java most of the way..)
The client facing server should be something reliable, esp. if it's over the internet, here I would use a proven product, something like Apache is good or IIS (depends on which technologies you have available). IMHO, I would go for jBoss AS - really powerful and easily customisable piece of kit, and integrates really nicely with lots of different things (all Java ofcourse!) You could then have a simple bit of Java which can then delegate to your actual Server processes that do the work..
For the Server procesess you can use C++ if that's what you are comfortable with
There is one key bit which I left out, and this is how 1 & 2 talk to each other. This is where you should look at an open source messaging product (even more higher level than asio or protocol buffers), and here I would look at something like Zero MQ, or Red Hat Messaging (both are MQ messaging protocols), the great advantage of this type of "messaging bus" is that there is no tight coupling between your servers, with your own handrolled implementation, you'll be doing lots of boilerplate to get the interaction to work just right, with something like MQ, you'll have multiplatform communication without having to get into the details... You wil save yourself a lot of time and bother if you elect to use something like that.. (btw. there are other messaging products out there, and some are easier to use - such as Tibco RV or EMS etc, however they are commercial products and licenses will cost a lot of money!)
With a messaging solution your servers become trivial as they simply handle incoming messagins and send messages back out again, and you can focus on the business logic...
my two pennies... :)
If you opt for 1st solution in Nim's list (web services) I would suggest you to have a look at WSO's web services framework for C++ , Axis CPP and Axis2/C web services framework (if you are not restricted to C++). Web Services might be the best solution for your requirement as you can quickly build them and use either as processing or proxy modules on the server side of your system.