TclHttpd Lesson Book

	TclHttpd Lesson Book

Server Setup

Before you start building an application, you'll want to know a few things about setting up the basic server.

Extending the Server

The TclHttpd web server is designed to be easily extended by adding Tcl code to the server. The easiest way to do this is to put all your code into a few Tcl source files in a directory known as your custom code directory. You tell the server about this with the -library command line argument, and the server automatically loads this code upon startup.

tclsh8.3 bin/httpd.tcl -library custom_directory

Note that nearly all configuration of the server is achieved by calling Tcl procedures. So, throughout the explainations here you see references to Tcl commands used to set up the server or provide URL implementations. Just put all that code into your custom code directory for it to take effect.

The interface to a web server is, of course, by the HTTP protocol in which clients ask for URLs and, optionally, provide additional query data that comes from forms. There are two basic phases in processing a URL request: access control and URL implementation.

Access Control

The first phase is a Server Security check where access controls can be enforced. At this stage you can enforce password protection, require HTTPS access, check sessions, and so forth. TclHttpd allows multiple security modules to be added, and each module gets a chance to check permissions.

URL Implementation

The second, main phase is the URL implementation. This is where the URL and associated query data is processed by the server, and results are returned to the client. In this phase, TclHttpd divides the URL namespace into subtrees called URL Domains. A URL domain is identified by the prefix of its URLs (e.g., "/status", or "/debug", or "/images"). The server comes with support for a few different kinds of URL domains, or you can implement your own custom URL domain for your application.

Document Domain

The Document Domain supports URLs that are mapped to regular files. The document domain allows you to plug in specialized support for different kinds of files. In particular, there is a TML Templates system that lets you embed Tcl code in your HTML page. The Tcl code gets expanded on the server before the page is returned to the client. This lets you do clever form handling, generate a common look and feel, and much more.

Application Direct URL

An application-direct URL is a direct mapping from a URL to a Tcl procedure call inside your application. Through a simple prefix mapping, the URL name is used as the Tcl procedure name. CGI values (i.e., query data) is mapped onto Tcl procedure arguments. The results of the Tcl procedure are displayed in the browser. This provides a simple, direct way to invoke functionality in your application.


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