Landing page for http::Server

This specification outlines the API to add a custom landing page to the zeroeq::http::Server. Currently Tide uses a hack to achieve static html pages.

Requirements

• Custom, runtime-changeable index.html landing page
• Default landing page displays a pretty-formatted version of /registry
• Allow dynamic pages

Dependencies

• 154: Vocabulary API

API

namespace http
{
class Page
{
     virtual std::string getContent() = 0;
};

class Server
{
    void setIndex( Page& page );
};
}

Protocol

• "GET / HTTP/1.0" and "GET /index.html HTTP/1.0" deliver the same landing page

Implementation

• New 'index' member in Server::Impl
• Extend _processGet to handle empty and index.html URLs
• Serves current Page::getContent on each invocation
• Default index page generates page from registry

Issues

Issue 1: Should we handle more than one page?

Resolution: Not for now.

There is a risk of feature creep, but likely these extra developments will be needed at some point. For instance, Tide could benefit from a more advanced web UI. It would complement the touch interface and replace the complicated master application & VNC setup. This implies delivering images and javascript in addition to html. In the absence of a proper API, this will happen through more "hacking" of class StaticContent : public servus::Serializable, or switching to a different network library.