abhttpserver

ABHttpServer - Simple HTTP Server Framework

This abstract class can be instantiated to create a simple and easy to use HTTP server. It serves HTTP and HTTPS requests concurrently on separate TCP/IP ports.

Installation

npm install abhttpserver

Usage

Simple HelloWorld example:

This example starts an HTTP server on port 8080 which responds every client request with "Hello world!".

import { ABHttpServer, ABRequest} from './ABHttpServer'
import { ServerResponse } from 'http';

class MyServer extends ABHttpServer {
  get(request: ABRequest, response: ServerResponse) {
    this.sendText(response, `Hello world!`)
  }
}
var myServer = new MyServer(8080)

Example test.ts:

This example starts two servers (HTTP:8080 and HTTPS:8081). All requests from both servers are handled thru the same class methods.

• For GET requests with an URL /stats, the server sends back a JSON object with some server statistic, all other GET requests will receive a text line with the send URL.
• All POST requests will be answered with the data sent with the POST request.

import { ABHttpServer, ABRequest} from './ABHttpServer'
import { ServerResponse } from 'http';

class MyServer extends ABHttpServer {
  get(request: ABRequest, response: ServerResponse) {
    if (request.url.path == 'stats') {
      this.sendJSON(response, this.getStatistics())
    } else {
      this.sendText(response, `The URL sent was ${request.url.path}`)
    }
  }
  post(request: ABRequest, response: ServerResponse) {
    this.sendJSON(response, { data: `The raw data sent was ${request.http.data}` })
  }
}
var myServer = new MyServer(8080, 8081)

Features

• Supports all HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, etc.) thru corresponding methods.
• Includes several methods for easy access to the received and sending data.
• The HTTPS server certificate and the trusted certificate chain are read from "key.pem" and "cert.pem". A self signed certificate is included for testing purpose.
• Detailed debugging information for HTTP events and data received and sent.

Debugging

Detailed debugging to the console is supported by setting the environment variable AB_DEBUG to true. The debugging data includes most of the HTTP/HTTPS server events and may result in a lot of data sent to the console.

AB_DEBUG=true node test.js

Example debug output:

2018-11-13T13:19:03.151Z ABHttpServer: Object constructor called (8080, 8081)
2018-11-13T13:19:03.161Z ABHttpServer: Creating HTTP server on port 8080
2018-11-13T13:19:03.165Z ABHttpServer: Creating HTTPS server on port 8081
2018-11-13T13:19:03.175Z ABHttpServer: HTTP server is listening
2018-11-13T13:19:03.175Z ABHttpServer: HTTP server started on port 8080
2018-11-13T13:19:03.175Z ABHttpServer: HTTPS server is listening
2018-11-13T13:19:03.175Z ABHttpServer: HTTPS server started on port 8081
2018-11-13T13:19:18.987Z ABHttpServer: HTTP client connected
2018-11-13T13:19:18.990Z ABHttpServer: HTTP client request received
2018-11-13T13:19:18.991Z ABHttpServer: <= HTTP/1.1 (Non-TLS) - Method GET - URL /hello - Content-Length 12
2018-11-13T13:19:18.991Z ABHttpServer: => HTTP Status 200 - Content-Length 22 - Content-Type text/plain
2018-11-13T13:19:23.996Z ABHttpServer: HTTP server is idle
2018-11-13T13:19:28.834Z ABHttpServer: HTTP client request received
2018-11-13T13:19:28.835Z ABHttpServer: <= HTTP/1.1 (Non-TLS) - Method POST - URL /helloagain - Content-Length 12
2018-11-13T13:19:28.835Z ABHttpServer: => HTTP Status 200 - Content-Length 45 - Content-Type application/json
2018-11-13T13:19:33.839Z ABHttpServer: HTTP server is idle
2018-11-13T13:19:59.899Z ABHttpServer: HTTPS client connected
2018-11-13T13:19:59.908Z ABHttpServer: HTTPS completed TLS handshaking
2018-11-13T13:19:59.910Z ABHttpServer: HTTPS client request received
2018-11-13T13:19:59.910Z ABHttpServer: <= HTTP/1.1 (TLSv1.2) - Method GET - URL /stats - Content-Length 12
2018-11-13T13:19:59.911Z ABHttpServer: => HTTP Status 200 - Content-Length 505 - Content-Type application/json

Notes

• This module does not require any framework or additional NPM module.
• The secure HTTPS server is started as HTTP/2 but will fallback to HTTP/1.1 if the client does not support HTTP/2.
• The object ABRequest is passed to every user method and contains information about the http request.

Prerequisits

• Node.js 10.10+ (HTTP/2 requirement)
• npm install @types/node

Unlicense

See unlicense.org

This software shall be used for Good, not Evil.

GIT Source code

You will find the source code on GitHub

Support

Support is provided on a best efford base. If you have any question, suggestion or find any issues, please report them. You may also contact the original author thru email at the address [e-mail].

Made with love in the beautiful city of Zurich, Switzerland