minimal-http-ruby

Minimal Http Server Class with Ryby: Haml & Coffeescript & SSE & AJAX -- well under 200 lines of code!

The server will run it it's own thread, without messing your code any extra EventMachine -style dependencies.

You can easily access realtime data with AJAX and SSE -- they will see your main application's global variables.

Great for adding HTTP-debug page to any small app, with the luxory of Coffeescript & Haml.

• Handles now POST too

Please, do not serve pages to internets with this server -- ABSOLUTELY NO SECURITY!

This is simple: just check the example! Like this:

require 'minimal-http-ruby'

minimal_http_server http_port: 8088, http_path: "./http/"

loop do #or whatever you need to do
	sleep 1
end

##Conventions: Static files are cached, so do not serve gigantic pictures. Next examples assume that your :http_path is "http/"

• Use Coffeescript :) Place .coffee files in http/coffee and any .js file requested is compiled from your source. Cached for performace.

• Use Haml ! Place .haml files in http/haml and any .http file requested is compiled from your source. Not cached as dynamic content.

• Use AJAX : When you access .json file from your page, the server tries to find

# encode: UTF-8

def json_demo request,args,session,event
  data = { now:Time.now.to_i }
  return ["application/json",data]
end

• Use SSE : This goes like AJAX, but instead of returning "application/json", you should specify: "text/event-stream" -- the server knows now to keep this stream open. You can make your script sleep for few seconds, that will be the Event Period -- the server sleeps one extra second for safety. Example here:

# encode: UTF-8

def json_demo request,args,session,event
  if not session or session==0
    return ["text/event-stream",{}]
  end
  sleep 10
  data={
    now:Time.now.to_i,
  }
  return ["text/event-stream",data]
end

And it's result on browser:

retry: 1000
data: {"now":1417014637}

retry: 1000
data: {"now":1417014641}

retry: 1000
data: {"now":1417014645}

retry: 1000
data: {"now":1417014649}

To get started, you can run utility minimal-http-init.rb -- It will create all directories and initial index.haml in your current directory!

You can easily start the server in any directory with command minimal-http.rb. Use --help option to find out how to change port and http-path ;)

##Coming Next:

• better cache control
• factoring source
• cleanup
• make class? not really necessary