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Overview

HTTPServices are objects which are responsible for handling http requests. They register themself at a server under a so called linkName (or multiple link names). Typically, the linkname is the top-component of an URL path - for example "/foo".
For any incoming request, the http-server selects the service based on the requests URL and forwards the request to the service, which has to generate a response (typically, HTML, XML text or bitmap images).

Due to the historic evolution of the web server, there are two different schemes for service handling:

In order to allow for easy migration of applications based on these packages, the ST/X webServer supports both schemes.
However, we think that the HTTPActionService scheme (single processing method) is better and more flexible, and we therefore recommend using that for new applications.

HTTPSelectorService

HTTPSelectorServices must provide a list of allowed service selectors and a default service selector.
For any incoming request, the URL component AFTER the linkName is extracted and taken as a message selector. I.e. if the URL is "/foo/bar", the service registered under the "/foo" linkName gets a "bar:" message.
If the URL is the linkName alone (i.e. no component after the linkName), the default selector is used.
If a selector is not allowed, the server responds with an "Illegal Message" response.

HTTPActionService

HTTPActionServices will always receive a "process:" message, with the request as argument. They are free to (and actually responsible for) interpreting the URL and dispatching to any internal method.

Available Services

Presents a list of available services (all subclasses of the HTTPService class). Use the down arrow button to add the selected service to the server (i.e. to register).

Registered Services

Presents a list of all registered services for the server. Every service has the following properties:

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Doc $Revision: 1.4 $ $Date: 1997/08/07 15:06:09 $