path: root/lib/inets/doc/src/http_server.xml

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<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">

<chapter>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2004</year><year>2011</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
      Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
      compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
      Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
      retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.

      Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
      basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
      the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
      under the License.

    </legalnotice>

    <title>HTTP server </title>
    <prepared>Ingela Anderton Andin</prepared>
    <responsible></responsible>
    <docno></docno>
    <approved></approved>
    <checked></checked>
    <date></date>
    <rev></rev>
    <file>http_server.xml</file>

    <marker id="intro"></marker>
  </header>

  <section>
    <title>Introduction</title>
    
    <p>The HTTP server, also referred to as httpd, handles HTTP requests
      as described in RFC 2616 with a few exceptions such as gateway
      and proxy functionality. The server supports ipv6 as long as the
      underlying mechanisms also do so. </p>

    <p>The server implements numerous features such as SSL (Secure Sockets
      Layer), ESI (Erlang Scripting Interface), CGI (Common Gateway
      Interface), User Authentication(using Mnesia, dets or plain text
      database), Common Logfile Format (with or without disk_log(3)
      support), URL Aliasing, Action Mappings, Directory Listings and SSI
      (Server-Side Includes).</p>

    <p>The configuration of the server is provided as an erlang
      property list, and for backwards compatibility also a configuration
      file using apache-style configuration directives is
      supported.</p>

    <p>As of inets version 5.0 the HTTP server is an easy to
      start/stop and customize web server that provides the most basic
      web server functionality. Depending on your needs there 
      are also other erlang based web servers that may be of interest
      such as Yaws, http://yaws.hyber.org, that for instance has its own
      markup support to generate html, and supports certain buzzword
      technologies such as SOAP.</p>
    
    <p>Allmost all server functionality has been implemented using an
      especially crafted server API which is described in the Erlang Web
      Server API. This API can be used to advantage by all who wish
      to enhance the core server functionality, for example with custom
      logging and authentication.</p>

    <marker id="config"></marker>
  </section>
  
  <section>
    <title>Configuration</title>
    
    <p> What to put in the erlang node application configuration file
      in order to start a http server at application startup.</p>
    
    <code type="erl">
      [{inets, [{services, [{httpd, [{proplist_file,
                 "/var/tmp/server_root/conf/8888_props.conf"}]},
                {httpd, [{proplist_file,
                 "/var/tmp/server_root/conf/8080_props.conf"}]}]}]}].
    </code>

    <p>The server is configured using an erlang property list.
      For the available properties see
      <seealso marker="httpd">httpd(3)</seealso>
      For backwards compatibility also apache-like config files
      are supported.
    </p>
    
    <p>All possible config properties are as follows </p>
    <code type="none">
     httpd_service() -> {httpd, httpd()}
     httpd()         -> [httpd_config()] 
     httpd_config()  -> {file, file()} |
                        {proplist_file, file()}
                        {debug, debug()} |
                        {accept_timeout, integer()}
     debug()         -> disable | [debug_options()]
     debug_options() -> {all_functions, modules()} | 
                        {exported_functions, modules()} |
                        {disable, modules()}
     modules()       -> [atom()]
    </code>
    <p>{proplist_file, file()} File containing an erlang property
      list, followed by a full stop, describing the HTTP server
      configuration.</p>
    <p>{file, file()} If you use an old apace-like configuration file.</p>
    <p>{debug, debug()} - Can enable trace on all
      functions or only exported functions on chosen modules.</p>
    <p>{accept_timeout, integer()} sets the wanted timeout value for
      the server to set up a request connection.</p>

    <marker id="using_http_server_api"></marker>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Using the HTTP Server API</title>
    <code type="none">
      1 > inets:start().
      ok
    </code>
    <p> Start a HTTP server with minimal
      required configuration. Note that if you
      specify port 0 an arbitrary available port will be
      used and you can use the info function to find out
      which port number that was picked.
    </p>

    <code type="none">
      2 > {ok, Pid} = inets:start(httpd, [{port, 0},
      {server_name,"httpd_test"}, {server_root,"/tmp"},
      {document_root,"/tmp/htdocs"}, {bind_address, "localhost"}]).
      {ok, 0.79.0}      
    </code>
    
    <code type="none">
      3 >  httpd:info(Pid).
      [{mime_types,[{"html","text/html"},{"htm","text/html"}]},
      {server_name,"httpd_test"},
      {bind_address, {127,0,0,1}},
      {server_root,"/tmp"},
      {port,59408},
      {document_root,"/tmp/htdocs"}]
    </code>

    <p> Reload the configuration without restarting the server.
      Note port and bind_address can not be changed. Clients
      trying to access the server during the reload will
      get a service temporary unavailable answer.
    </p>
    <code type="none">
    4 > httpd:reload_config([{port, 59408},
      {server_name,"httpd_test"}, {server_root,"/tmp/www_test"},
      {document_root,"/tmp/www_test/htdocs"},
      {bind_address, "localhost"}], non_disturbing).
    ok.
    </code>

    <code type="none">
      5 >  httpd:info(Pid, [server_root, document_root]).
      [{server_root,"/tmp/www_test"},{document_root,"/tmp/www_test/htdocs"}] 
    </code>

    <code type="none">
      6 > ok = inets:stop(httpd, Pid).
    </code>
    
    <p> Alternative:</p>
    
    <code type="none">
      6 > ok = inets:stop(httpd, {{127,0,0,1}, 59408}).
    </code>

    <p>Note that bind_address has to be
      the ip address reported by the info function and can
      not be the hostname that is allowed when inputting bind_address.</p>
    
    <marker id="htaccess"></marker>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Htaccess - User Configurable Authentication.</title>
    <p>If users of the web server needs to manage authentication of
        web pages that are local to their user and do not have
        server administrative privileges. They can use the
        per-directory runtime configurable user-authentication scheme
        that Inets calls htaccess. It works the following way: </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>Each directory in the path to the requested asset is
         searched for an access-file (default .htaccess), that restricts
         the web servers rights to respond to a request. If an access-file
         is found the rules in that file is applied to the
         request. </item>
        <item>The rules in an access-file applies both to files in the same
         directories and in subdirectories. If there exists more than one
         access-file in the path to an asset, the rules in the
         access-file nearest the requested asset will be applied.</item>
        <item>To change the rules that restricts the use of 
         an asset. The user only needs to have write access 
         to the directory where the asset exists.</item>
        <item>All the access-files in the path to a requested asset is read
         once per request, this means that the load on the server will
         increase when this scheme is used.</item>
        <item>If a directory is
         limited both by auth directives in the HTTP server configuration
         file and by the htaccess files. The user must be allowed to get
         access the file by both methods for the request to succeed.</item>
      </list>

    <section>
      <title>Access Files Directives</title>
        <p>In every directory under the <c>DocumentRoot</c> or under an
	<c>Alias</c> a user can place an access-file. An access-file
	is a plain text file that specify the restrictions that
	shall be considered before the web server answer to a
          request. If there are more than one access-file in the path
          to the requested asset, the directives in the access-file in
          the directory nearest the asset will be used.</p>
        <list type="bulleted">
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "allow"</em></p>
            <p><em>Syntax:</em><c>Allow</c> from subnet subnet|from all              <br></br>
<em>Default:</em><c>from all </c>              <br></br>
</p>
            <p>Same as the directive allow for the server config file. </p>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "AllowOverRide"</em></p>
            <p><em>Syntax:</em><c>AllowOverRide</c> all | none |
              Directives              <br></br>
<em>Default:</em><c>- None -</c>              <br></br>
<c>AllowOverRide</c> Specify which parameters that not 
              access-files in subdirectories are allowed to alter the value 
              for. If the parameter is set to none no more 
              access-files will be parsed. 
              </p>
            <p>If only one access-file exists setting this parameter to
              none can lessen the burden on the server since the server
              will stop looking for access-files.</p>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "AuthGroupfile"</em></p>
            <p><em>Syntax:</em><c>AuthGroupFile</c> Filename              <br></br>
<em>Default:</em><c>- None -</c>              <br></br>
</p>
            <p>AuthGroupFile indicates which file that contains the list
              of groups.  Filename must contain the absolute path to the
              file.  The format of the file is one group per row and
              every row contains the name of the group and the members
              of the group separated by a space, for example:</p>
            <pre>
GroupName: Member1 Member2 .... MemberN
            </pre>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "AuthName"</em></p>
            <p><em>Syntax:</em><c>AuthName</c> auth-domain              <br></br>
<em>Default:</em><c>- None -</c>              <br></br>
</p>
            <p>Same as the directive AuthName for the server config file. </p>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "AuthType"</em></p>
            <p><em>Syntax:</em><c>AuthType</c> Basic              <br></br>
<em>Default:</em><c>Basic</c>              <br></br>
</p>
            <p><c>AuthType</c> Specify which authentication scheme that shall
              be used. Today only Basic Authenticating using UUEncoding of
              the password and user ID is implemented.  </p>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "AuthUserFile"</em></p>
            <p><em>Syntax:</em><c>AuthUserFile</c> Filename              <br></br>
<em>Default:</em><c>- None -</c>              <br></br>
</p>
            <p><c>AuthUserFile</c> indicate which file that contains the list
              of users.  Filename must contain the absolute path to the
              file. The users name and password are not encrypted so do not
              place the file with users in a directory that is accessible
              via the web server. The format of the file is one user per row
              and every row contains User Name and Password separated by a
              colon, for example:</p>
            <pre>
UserName:Password
UserName:Password
            </pre>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "deny"</em></p>
            <p><em>Syntax:</em><c>deny</c> from subnet subnet|from all              <br></br>
<em>Context:</em> Limit</p>
            <p>Same as the directive deny for the server config file. </p>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "Limit"</em>              <br></br>
</p>
            <p><em>Syntax:</em><c><![CDATA[<Limit]]></c> RequestMethods<c>></c>              <br></br>
<em>Default:</em> - None -              <br></br>
</p>
            <p><c><![CDATA[<Limit>]]></c> and &lt;/Limit&gt; are used to enclose
              a group of directives which applies only to requests using
              the specified methods. If no request method is specified
              all request methods are verified against the restrictions.</p>
            <pre>
&lt;Limit POST GET HEAD&gt;
  order allow deny
  require group group1
  allow from 123.145.244.5
&lt;/Limit&gt;
            </pre>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "order"</em>              <br></br>
<em>Syntax:</em><c>order</c> allow deny | deny allow              <br></br>
<em>Default:</em> allow deny              <br></br>
</p>
            <p><c>order</c>, defines if the deny or allow control shall
              be preformed first.</p>
            <p>If the order is set to allow deny, then first the users
              network address is controlled to be in the allow subset. If
              the users network address is not in the allowed subset he will
              be denied to get the asset. If the network-address is in the
              allowed subset then a second control will be preformed, that
              the users network address is not in the subset of network
              addresses that shall be denied as specified by the deny
              parameter.</p>
            <p>If the order is set to deny allow then only users from networks
              specified to be in the allowed subset will succeed to request  
              assets in the limited area.</p>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p><em>DIRECTIVE: "require"</em></p>
            <p><em>Syntax:</em><c>require</c>
              group group1 group2...|user user1 user2...              <br></br>
<em>Default:</em><c>- None -</c>              <br></br>
<em>Context:</em> Limit              <br></br>
</p>
            <p>See the require directive in the documentation of mod_auth(3)
              for more information.</p>
          </item>
        </list>
      </section>

      <marker id="dynamic_we_pages"></marker>
    </section>
  
    <section>
      <title>Dynamic Web Pages</title>
      <p>The Inets HTTP server provides two ways of creating dynamic web
        pages, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. </p>
      <p>First there are CGI-scripts that can be written in any programming
        language. CGI-scripts are standardized and supported by most
        web servers. The drawback with CGI-scripts is that they are resource
        intensive because of their design. CGI requires the server to fork a
        new OS process for each executable it needs to start. </p>
      <p>Second there are ESI-functions that provide a tight and efficient
        interface to the execution of Erlang functions, this interface
        on the other hand is Inets specific. </p>

      <section>
        <title>The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Version 1.1, RFC 3875.</title>
        <p>The mod_cgi module makes it possible to execute CGI scripts
          in the server.  A file that matches the definition of a
          ScriptAlias config directive is treated as a CGI script.  A CGI
          script is executed by the server and its output is returned to
          the client. </p>
        <p>The CGI Script response comprises a message-header and a
          message-body, separated by a blank line.  The message-header
          contains one or more header fields. The body may be
          empty. Example: </p>
      
      <code>"Content-Type:text/plain\nAccept-Ranges:none\n\nsome very
	plain text" </code>
      
        <p>The server will interpret the cgi-headers and most of them
          will be transformed into HTTP headers and sent back to the
          client together with the body.</p>
        <p>Support for CGI-1.1 is implemented in accordance with the RFC
          3875. </p>
      </section>

      <section>
        <title>Erlang Server Interface (ESI)</title>
        <p>The erlang server interface is implemented by the
          module mod_esi.</p>

        <section>
          <title>ERL Scheme </title>
          <p>The erl scheme is designed to mimic plain CGI, but without
            the extra overhead. An URL which calls an Erlang erl function
            has the following syntax (regular expression): </p>
          <code type="none">
http://your.server.org/***/Module[:/]Function(?QueryString|/PathInfo)
          </code>
          <p>*** above depends on how the ErlScriptAlias config
            directive has been used</p>
          <p>The module (Module) referred to must be found in the code
            path, and it must define a function (Function) with an arity
            of two or three. It is preferable to implement a funtion
            with arity three as it permits you to send chunks of the
            webpage beeing generated to the client during the generation
            phase instead of first generating the whole web page and
            then sending it to the client. The option to implement a
            function with arity two is only kept for
            backwardcompatibilty reasons. 
            See <seealso marker="mod_esi">mod_esi(3)</seealso> for 
            implementation details of the esi callback function.</p>
        </section>

        <section>
          <title>EVAL Scheme </title>
          <p>The eval scheme is straight-forward and does not mimic the
            behavior of plain CGI. An URL which calls an Erlang eval
            function has the following syntax:</p>
          <code type="none">
http://your.server.org/***/Mod:Func(Arg1,...,ArgN)
          </code>
          <p>*** above depends on how the ErlScriptAlias config
            directive has been used</p>
          <p>The module (Mod) referred to must be found in the code
            path, and data returned by the function (Func) is passed
            back to the client. Data returned from the
            function must furthermore take the form as specified in
            the CGI specification. See <seealso marker="mod_esi">mod_esi(3)</seealso> for implementation details of the esi
            callback function.</p>
          <note>
            <p>The eval scheme can seriously threaten the
              integrity of the Erlang node housing a Web server, for
              example: </p>
            <code type="none">
http://your.server.org/eval?httpd_example:print(atom_to_list(apply(erlang,halt,[])))
            </code>
            <p>which effectively will close down the Erlang node,
              therefor, use the erl scheme instead, until this
              security breach has been fixed.</p>
            <p>Today there are no good way of solving this problem
              and therefore Eval Scheme may be removed in future
              release of Inets.  </p>
          </note>
        </section>
      </section>

      <marker id="logging"></marker>
    </section>

  <section>
    <title>Logging </title>
    <p>There are three types of logs supported. Transfer logs,
      security logs and error logs.  The de-facto standard Common
        Logfile Format is used for the transfer and security logging.
      There are numerous statistics programs available to analyze Common
      Logfile Format. The Common Logfile Format looks as follows:
        </p>
    <p><em>remotehost rfc931 authuser [date] "request" status bytes</em></p>
    <taglist>
      <tag><em>remotehost</em></tag>
      <item>Remote hostname</item>
      <tag><em>rfc931</em></tag>
        <item>The client's remote username (RFC 931).</item>
      <tag><em>authuser</em></tag>
      <item>The username with which the user authenticated himself.</item>
      <tag><em>[date]</em></tag>
        <item>Date and time of the request (RFC 1123).</item>
      <tag><em>"request"</em></tag>
        <item>The request line exactly as it came from the client (RFC 1945).</item>
        <tag><em>status</em></tag>
        <item>The HTTP status code returned to the client (RFC 1945).</item>
        <tag><em>bytes</em></tag>
        <item>The content-length of the document transferred. </item>
      </taglist>
      <p>Internal server errors are recorded in the error log file. The
        format of this file is a more ad hoc format than the logs using
      Common Logfile Format, but conforms to the following syntax:
        </p>
      <p><em>[date]</em> access to <em>path</em> failed for
        <em>remotehost</em>, reason: <em>reason</em></p>

    <marker id="ssi"></marker>
  </section>

  <section>
      <title>Server Side Includes</title>
    <p>Server Side Includes enables the server to run code embedded
        in HTML pages to generate the response to the client.</p>
      <note>
        <p>Having the server parse HTML pages is a double edged sword!
          It can be costly for a heavily loaded server to perform
          parsing of HTML pages while sending them. Furthermore, it can
          be considered a security risk to have average users executing 
          commands in the name of the  Erlang node user. Carefully
          consider these items before activating server-side includes.</p>
      </note>

      <section>
        <marker id="ssi_setup"></marker>
        <title>SERVER-SIDE INCLUDES (SSI) SETUP</title>
        <p>The server must be told which filename extensions to be used
          for the parsed files. These files, while very similar to HTML,
          are not HTML and are thus not treated the same. Internally, the
          server uses the magic MIME type <c>text/x-server-parsed-html</c>
          to identify parsed documents. It will then perform a format
          conversion to change these files into HTML for the
          client. Update the <c>mime.types</c> file, as described in the
          Mime Type Settings, to tell the server which extension to use
          for parsed files, for example:
          </p>
        <pre>
	text/x-server-parsed-html shtml shtm
        </pre>
        <p>This makes files ending with <c>.shtml</c> and <c>.shtm</c>
          into parsed files. Alternatively, if the performance hit is not a
          problem, <em>all</em> HTML pages can be marked as parsed:
          </p>
        <pre>
	text/x-server-parsed-html html htm
        </pre>
      </section>

      <section>
        <marker id="ssi_format"></marker>
        <title>Server-Side Includes (SSI) Format</title>
        <p>All server-side include directives to the server are formatted
          as SGML comments within the HTML page. This is in case the
          document should ever  find itself in the client's hands
          unparsed. Each directive has the following format:
          </p>
        <pre>
	&lt;!--#command tag1="value1" tag2="value2" --&gt;
        </pre>
        <p>Each command takes different arguments, most only accept one
          tag at a time. Here is a breakdown of the commands and their
          associated tags:
          </p>
        <p>The config directive controls various aspects of the
          file parsing. There are two valid tags:
          </p>
        <taglist>
          <tag><c>errmsg</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>controls the message sent back to the client if an
              error occurred while parsing the document. All errors are
              logged in the server's error log.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>sizefmt</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>determines the format used to  display the size of
              a file. Valid choices are <c>bytes</c> or
              <c>abbrev</c>. <c>bytes</c> for a formatted byte count
              or <c>abbrev</c> for an abbreviated version displaying
              the number of kilobytes.</p>
          </item>
        </taglist>
        <p>The include directory 
          will insert the text of a document into the parsed
          document. This command accepts two tags:</p>
        <taglist>
          <tag><c>virtual</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>gives a virtual path to a document on the
              server. Only normal files and other parsed documents can
              be accessed in this way.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>file</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>gives a pathname relative to the current
              directory. <c>../</c> cannot be used in this pathname, nor
              can absolute paths. As above, you can send other parsed
              documents, but you cannot send CGI scripts.</p>
          </item>
        </taglist>
        <p>The echo directive prints the value of one of the include
          variables (defined below). The only valid tag to this
          command is <c>var</c>, whose value is the name of the
          variable you wish to echo.</p>
        <p>The fsize directive prints the size of the specified
          file. Valid tags are the same as with the <c>include</c>
          command. The resulting format of this command is subject
          to the <c>sizefmt</c> parameter to the <c>config</c>
          command.</p>
        <p>The lastmod directive prints the last modification date of
          the specified file. Valid tags are the same as with the
          <c>include</c> command.</p>
        <p>The exec directive executes a given shell command or CGI
          script. Valid tags are:</p>
        <taglist>
          <tag><c>cmd</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>executes the given string using <c>/bin/sh</c>. All
              of the variables defined below are defined, and can be
              used in the command.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>cgi</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>executes the given virtual path to a CGI script and
              includes its output. The server does not perform error
              checking on the script output.</p>
          </item>
        </taglist>
      </section>

      <section>
        <marker id="ssi_environment_variables"></marker>
        <title>Server-Side Includes (SSI) Environment Variables</title>
        <p>A number of variables are made available to parsed
          documents. In addition to the CGI variable set, the following
          variables are made available: 
          </p>
        <taglist>
          <tag><c>DOCUMENT_NAME</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>The current filename.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>DOCUMENT_URI</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>The virtual path to this document (such as
              <c>/docs/tutorials/foo.shtml</c>).</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>The unescaped version of any search query the client
              sent, with all shell-special characters escaped with
              <c>\</c>.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>DATE_LOCAL</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>The current date, local time zone.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>DATE_GMT</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>Same as DATE_LOCAL but in Greenwich mean time.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>LAST_MODIFIED</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>The last modification date of the current document.</p>
          </item>
        </taglist>
      </section>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>The Erlang Web Server API</title>
      <p>The process of handling a HTTP request involves several steps
        such as:</p>
      <list type="bulleted">
        <item>Seting up connections, sending and receiving data.</item>
        <item>URI to filename translation</item>
        <item>Authenication/access checks.</item>
        <item>Retriving/generating the response.</item>
        <item>Logging</item>
      </list>
      <p>To provide customization and extensibility of the HTTP servers
        request handling most of these steps are handled by one or more
        modules that may be replaced or removed at runtime, and of course
        new ones can be added. For each request all modules will be
        traversed in the order specified by the modules directive in the
        server configuration file. Some parts mainly the communication
        related steps are considered server core functionality and are
        not implemented using the Erlang Web Server API.  A description of
        functionality implemented by the Erlang Webserver API is described
        in the section Inets Webserver Modules.</p>
      <p>A module can use data generated by previous modules in the
        Erlang Webserver API module sequence or generate data to be used
        by consecutive Erlang Web Server API modules. This is made
        possible due to an internal list of key-value tuples, also referred to
        as interaction data. </p>
      <note>
        <p>Interaction data enforces module dependencies and
          should be avoided if possible. This means the order
          of modules in the Modules property is significant.</p>
      </note>

      <section>
        <title>API Description</title>
        <p>Each module implements server functionality
          using the Erlang Web Server API should implement the following
          call back functions:</p>
        <list type="bulleted">
          <item>do/1 (mandatory) - the function called when
           a request should be handled.</item>
          <item>load/2</item>
          <item>store/2</item>
          <item>remove/1</item>
        </list>
        <p>The latter functions are needed only when new config
          directives are to be introduced. For details see
          <seealso marker="httpd">httpd(3)</seealso></p>
      </section>
    </section>

  <section>
    <title>Inets Web Server Modules</title> <p>The convention is that
      all modules implementing some webserver functionality has the
      name mod_*. When configuring the web server an appropriate
      selection of these modules should be present in the Module
      directive. Please note that there are some interaction dependencies
      to take into account so the order of the modules can not be
      totally random.</p>

    <section>
      <title>mod_action - Filetype/Method-Based Script Execution.</title>
      <p>Runs CGI scripts whenever a file of a
	certain type or HTTP method (See RFC 1945) is requested.
      </p>
      <p>Uses the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
	<item>real_name - from mod_alias</item>
      </list>
      <p>Exports the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data, if possible:
      </p>
      <taglist>
	<tag><c>{new_request_uri, RequestURI}</c></tag>
	<item>An alternative <c>RequestURI</c> has been generated.</item>
      </taglist>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>mod_alias - URL Aliasing</title>
      <p>This module makes it possible to map different parts of the
	host file system into the document tree e.i. creates aliases and
	redirections.</p>
        <p>Exports the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data, if possible:
      </p>
      <taglist>
	<tag><c>{real_name, PathData}</c></tag>
	<item>PathData is the argument used for API function mod_alias:path/3.</item>
      </taglist>
    </section>
    
    <section>
      <title>mod_auth - User Authentication </title>
        <p>This module provides for basic user authentication using
	textual files, dets databases as well as mnesia databases.</p>
      <p>Uses the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
	<item>real_name - from mod_alias</item>
        </list>
      <p>Exports the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <taglist>
	<tag><c>{remote_user, User}</c></tag>
          <item>The user name with which the user has authenticated himself.</item>
      </taglist>
      
      
      <section>
	<title>Mnesia as Authentication Database</title>
	
	<p> If Mnesia is used as storage method, Mnesia must be
	  started prio to the HTTP server. The first time Mnesia is
	  started the schema and the tables must be created before
	  Mnesia is started. A naive example of a module with two
	  functions that creates and start mnesia is provided
	  here. The function shall be used the first
	  time. first_start/0 creates the schema and the tables. The
	  second function start/0 shall be used in consecutive
	  startups. start/0 Starts Mnesia and wait for the tables to
	  be initiated. This function must only be used when the
	  schema and the tables already is created. </p>
	
	<code>
-module(mnesia_test).
-export([start/0,load_data/0]).
-include_lib("mod_auth.hrl").

first_start() ->
    mnesia:create_schema([node()]),
    mnesia:start(),
    mnesia:create_table(httpd_user,
                        [{type, bag},
                         {disc_copies, [node()]},
                         {attributes, record_info(fields, 
                                                  httpd_user)}]),
    mnesia:create_table(httpd_group,
                        [{type, bag},
                         {disc_copies, [node()]},          
                         {attributes, record_info(fields, 
                                                  httpd_group)}]),
    mnesia:wait_for_tables([httpd_user, httpd_group], 60000).

start() ->
    mnesia:start(),
    mnesia:wait_for_tables([httpd_user, httpd_group], 60000).                 
	</code>
	
	<p>To create the Mnesia tables we use two records defined in
	  mod_auth.hrl so the file must be included.  The first
	  function first_start/0 creates a schema that specify on
	  which nodes the database shall reside. Then it starts Mnesia
	  and creates the tables. The first argument is the name of
	  the tables, the second argument is a list of options how the
	  table will be created, see Mnesia documentation for more
	  information. Since the current implementation of the
	  mod_auth_mnesia saves one row for each user the type must be
	  bag.  When the schema and the tables is created the second
	  function start/0 shall be used to start Mensia. It starts
	  Mnesia and wait for the tables to be loaded. Mnesia use the
	  directory specified as mnesia_dir at startup if specified,
	  otherwise Mnesia use the current directory.  For security
	  reasons, make sure that the Mnesia tables are stored outside
	  the document tree of the HTTP server. If it is placed in the
	  directory which it protects, clients will be able to
	  download the tables.  Only the dets and mnesia storage
	  methods allow writing of dynamic user data to disk. plain is
	  a read only method.</p>
      </section>

    </section>
    
    <section>
      <title>mod_cgi - CGI Scripts</title>
        <p>This module handles invoking of CGI scripts</p>
    </section>
    
    <section>
      <title>mod_dir - Directories</title>
      <p>This module generates an HTML directory listing
	(Apache-style) if a client sends a request for a directory
	instead of a file. This module needs to be removed from the
	Modules config directive if directory listings is unwanted.</p>
      <p>Uses the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
	<item>real_name - from mod_alias</item>
      </list>
      <p>Exports the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <taglist>
	<tag><c>{mime_type, MimeType}</c></tag>
	<item>The file suffix of the incoming URL mapped into a
          <c>MimeType</c>.</item>
        </taglist>
      </section>

    <section>
      <title>mod_disk_log - Logging Using disk_log.</title>
        <p>Standard logging using the "Common Logfile Format" and
	disk_log(3).</p>
        <p>Uses the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
        <list type="bulleted">
	<item>remote_user - from mod_auth</item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>mod_esi - Erlang Server Interface</title>
      <p>This module implements
          the Erlang Server Interface (ESI) that provides a tight and
	efficient interface to the execution of Erlang functions. </p>
        <p>Uses the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
	<item>remote_user - from mod_auth</item>
      </list>
      <p>Exports the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
          </p>
      <taglist>
	<tag><c>{mime_type, MimeType}</c></tag>
	<item>The file suffix of the incoming URL mapped into a
          <c>MimeType</c></item>
        </taglist>
      </section>
    
      <section>
      <title>mod_get - Regular GET Requests</title>
      <p>This module is responsible for handling GET requests to regular 
	files. GET requests for parts of files is handled by mod_range.</p>
        <p>Uses the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
          <item>real_name - from mod_alias</item>
      </list>
      </section>
    
    <section>
      <title>mod_head - Regular HEAD Requests</title>
        <p>This module is responsible for handling HEAD requests to regular 
	files. HEAD requests for dynamic content is handled by each module 
	responsible for dynamic content.</p>
        <p>Uses the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
	<item>real_name - from mod_alias</item>
        </list>
    </section>
    
    <section>
      <title>mod_htaccess - User Configurable Access</title>
      <p>This module provides per-directory user configurable access
          control.</p>
      <p>Uses the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
          <item>real_name - from mod_alias</item>
      </list>
      <p>Exports the following Erlang Web Server API interaction data:
      </p>
      <taglist>
	<tag><c>{remote_user_name, User}</c></tag>
	<item>The user name with which the user has authenticated himself.</item>
        </taglist>
    </section>
    
      <section>
      <title>mod_include - SSI</title>
      <p>This module makes it possible to expand "macros" embedded in
	HTML pages before they are delivered to the client, that is
	Server-Side Includes (SSI).
          </p>
      <p>Uses the following Erlang Webserver API interaction data:
      </p>
        <list type="bulleted">
	<item>real_name - from mod_alias</item>
	<item>remote_user - from mod_auth</item>
      </list>
        <p>Exports the following Erlang Webserver API interaction data:
      </p>
      <taglist>
	<tag><c>{mime_type, MimeType}</c></tag>
	<item>The file suffix of the incoming URL mapped into a
          <c>MimeType</c> as defined in the Mime Type Settings
	  section.</item>
      </taglist>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>mod_log - Logging Using Text Files.</title>
      <p>Standard logging using the "Common Logfile Format" and text
	files.</p>
        <p>Uses the following Erlang Webserver API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
	<item>remote_user - from mod_auth</item>
        </list>
    </section>
    
      <section>
      <title>mod_range - Requests with Range Headers</title>
      <p>This module response to requests for one or many ranges of a
	file.  This is especially useful when downloading large files,
	since a broken download may be resumed.</p>
      <p>Note that request for multiple parts of a document will report a
	size of zero to the log file.</p>
        <p>Uses the following Erlang Webserver API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
	<item>real_name - from mod_alias</item>
      </list>
    </section>

    <section>
      <title>mod_response_control - Requests with If* Headers</title>
      <p>This module controls that the conditions in the requests is
	fulfilled. For example a request may specify that the answer
	only is of interest if the content is unchanged since last
	retrieval. Or if the content is changed the range-request shall
	be converted to a request for the whole file instead.</p> <p>If
	a client sends more then one of the header fields that restricts
	the servers right to respond, the standard does not specify how
	this shall be handled.  httpd will control each field in the
	following order and if one of the fields not match the current
	state the request will be rejected with a proper response.
	<br></br>
	
          1.If-modified          <br></br>

          2.If-Unmodified          <br></br>

          3.If-Match          <br></br>

          4.If-Nomatch          <br></br>
</p>
      <p>Uses the following Erlang Webserver API interaction data:
      </p>
      <list type="bulleted">
	<item>real_name - from mod_alias</item>
      </list>
      <p>Exports the following Erlang Webserver API interaction data:
      </p>
      <taglist>
	<tag><c>{if_range, send_file}</c></tag>
	<item>The conditions for the range request was not fulfilled.
	  The response must not be treated as a range request, instead it
	  must be treated as a ordinary get request. </item>
        </taglist>
    </section>
    
    <section>
      <title>mod_security - Security Filter</title>
        <p>This module serves as a filter for authenticated requests
	handled in mod_auth.  It provides possibility to restrict users
	from access for a specified amount of time if they fail to
	authenticate several times. It logs failed authentication as
	well as blocking of users, and it also calls a configurable
	call-back module when the events occur.  </p>
      <p>There is also an
	API to manually block, unblock and list blocked users or users,
	who have been authenticated within a configurable amount of
	time.</p>
    </section>
    
    <section>
      <title>mod_trace - TRACE Request</title>
      <p>mod_trace is responsible for handling of TRACE requests.
	Trace is a new request method in HTTP/1.1. The intended use of
	trace requests is for testing. The body of the trace response is
	the request message that the responding Web server or proxy
	received.</p>
    </section>
  </section>
</chapter>