This package offers modern web access using header-only libraries for C++17. This includes the httplib.h header-only library for http(s) clients and servers, and a linted sajason.h for jason parsing. In addition, supplimental header-only libraries that access various specific web api services will also be added. The core dependencies only required C++11, but our extensions and api headers may require C++17.
This choice of using httplib and sajason was for very generic cross-platform functionality, https functionality built around openssl, and broad licensing compatibility. The collective work functions in effect on a MIT license, which httplib and any additional api headers use. The sajason license is fully permissive as long as the copyright notice is kept in the sajason header.
WebForCPP requires CMake to build. It should build and work with GCC (9 or later), with Clang (14? or later), and MSVC. Besides GNU/Linux and BSD systems, webforcpp is portable to and can support the MingW platform target as installed by Debian when selecting posix runtime, and even native MS Visual Studio builds. The minimum requirement is a C++17 compiler (or later).
Httplib uses blocking I/O, which means http requests launched in threads may block waiting for I/O completion. The simplest way to unblock an outstanding apirequest early is probably to force close the httplib client context stop() method from another thread. This and other interruptions may generate a SIGPIPE on posix platforms, which likely should be ignored. The individual API headers may have a make_XXX function to create an exposed client context in a shared pointer that can then be used for forced closure and a separate api request function that uses a client context which can be handed off to a client thread.
Distributions of this package are provided as detached source tarballs made from a tagged release from our internal source repository. These stand-alone detached tarballs can be used to make packages for many GNU/Linux systems, and for BSD ports. They may also be used to build and install the software directly on a target platform.
The latest release source tarball is found at https://www.tychosoft.com/tychosoft/-/packages/generic/webforcpp which provides access to past releases as well.
This project is offered as free (as in freedom) software for public use and has a public home page at https://www.tychosoft.com/tychosoft/webforcpp which has an issue tracker where people can submit public bug reports, and a wiki for hosting project documentation. We are not maintaining a public git repo nor do we have any production or development related resources hosted on external sites. Patches may be submitted and attached to an issue in the issue tracker. Support requests and other kinds of inquiries may also be sent privately thru email to [email protected]. Other details about participation may be found in the Contributing page.
There are testing programs for each header. These run simple tests that will be expanded to improve code coverage over time. The test programs are the only built target making this library by itself, and the test programs in this package work with the cmake ctest framework. They may also be used as simple examples of how a given header works. There is also a lint target that can be used to verify code changes.