Neokernel API

RequestAgentInterface Interface

A standard interface for inter-agent communication. Agents that implement this interface are "triggered" when other agents pass them AgentRequest and HTTPAgentRequest objects.

For a list of all members of this type, see RequestAgentInterface Members .

public interface RequestAgentInterface

Types that implement RequestAgentInterface

Type Description
AutoReplyAgent This agent sets itself up to receive messages from a ReceiveEmailAgent and automatically respond to the sender using the SendEmailAgent. In most cases, this will be subclassed and the getReply method should be overridden.
RequestDumperAgent This is a simple agent which dumps the contents of the requests it receives. This can be used for debugging messages received by the ReceiveEmailAgent.
RequestFilterAgent This agent proxies requests to another request agent and in the process, it caches the props for each request. When this agent starts up, it grabs a reference to the RequestAgent that its requests are proxying to from the ServiceManager, then registers itself. Cached requests are filtered depending on the filter_interval property and the requests that made it through the filter are emailed to the list of email addresses provided by the recipients property. Note: It may be a bad idea for this agent to proxy AgentRequests that may contain references to resources that needs to be released. The props from AgentRequests are not released for garbage collection until the filtering has been done.
HTTPAuthenticationAgent This agent is used by the WebServer to handle authorization of password protected resources.

The authentication file defines the realms and the usernames and passwords which are used to authenticate clients to the paths associated with each realm. The authentication file is delimited by newlines and must end with a newline. Each realm is declared with a PATH and the REALM name separated by spaces, followed by usernames and passwords on new lines, separated by a space. PATHs must begin with a slash and end with a slash.

The HOSTNAME field at the beginning of the file indicates to the HTTPAuthentication agent what hostname the realms should be mapped to. In Virtual Host (multihoming) configurations, use multiple authentication files with different HOSTNAME values for each file. The default hostname is default.

Here is an example authentication file:
HOSTNAME
PATH0 REALM0
username0 password0
username1 password1
username2 password2
username3 password3
PATH1 REALM2
username0 password0
username1 password1

The following example shows an example of an authentication file with two realms, 'My realm' and 'Main Realm'. If any access is made to files or directories in /private/, this agent will ask for the username jonlin with the password mainpassword, except for accesses to /private/mine/, which is under the /private/ path but is its own realm and requires its own usernames and passwords. If default is used as the hostname then the authentication map will apply to all virtual hosts on this server.

default
/private/mine/ My realm
john johnpassword
santos halper
/private/ Main Realm
john mainpassword
This agent supports the following Props settings:
service_name
The name this agent uses to register with Service Manager. The WebServer's authentication_agent prop must be set to match this agent's service_name, or requests for urls requiring authentication will not be handed off to this agent. The default value is http_authentication.agent.
authentication_files
The file(s) used for authenticating requests. The default value is ./http.authentication. Separate multiple files with commas.
HTTPFileServerAgent

This agent is used by the WebServer and SecureWebServer to handle requests for files from the file system.

If the file is an ASP.NET file, it will be executed using the ASP.NET environment on the server and the output will be sent to the requestor. If the ASP.NET code references other assemblies or .dlls, include copies of these .dlls in the same folder as your ASP.NET file.

The HTTPFileServerAgent supports the following Props:

service_name
The name this agent uses to register with Service Manager. The default value is HTTPFileServerAgent
html_directory
The path to the directory where HTML files are served from. Defaults to ./
default_index
The default files (separated by commas) to serve when no filename is specified in the HTTP request. This prop is set to index.html by default, which means requests for /public_html/my_stuff/ will be served the file /public_html/my_stuff/index.html.
allow_directory_lists
If this is set to yes, this agent will display links to all files in a directory when a web request specifies a directory instead of a file. The default value is no
dont_index_list
This is the list of files that shouldn't appear in directory index listings, can use '*' to denote a wildcard. This property is not used if the allow_directory_lists property is set to false. By default, this property isn't set.
alpha_sort_index
If set to true, directory lists will be sorted in alphanumerical order. This property is set to true by default.
aspnet_config_file
The path to an XML file containing ASP.NET configuration and debugging information. Defaults to web.config.
preload_aspx_pages
A list describing the ASP.NET pages that should be pre-loaded when the agent starts. This is not required but it makes pages load faster the first time they are requested by the user. To pre-load ASP.NET pages the agent must know the file location and it's URL relative to the server root. The list of files is in the format:
[WebPath1],[FilePath1];[WebPath2],[FilePath2] (or [WebPath1],[FilePath1],[VirtualDirectory1] if the page is in a virtual directory),
and so on, where the first item in each pair is the path to the file relative to the root of the web server (e.g. /aspapp/myfile.aspx) and the second is the path to the file on the hard disk (e.g. d:\htmldir\aspapp\myfile.aspx). This property is not set by default.
aspx_assemblies
An optional comma separated list of assemblies referenced by ASP.Net pages. Assemblies appearing in this list will be copied to the \bin subdirectory of the folder where the ASP.Net page is located. The files will be re-copied and re-loaded if a newer version becomes available. Use the full path. Here is an example value for this property: c:\app\foo.dll,c:\anotherapp\bar.dll
file_buffer_size
The size of the buffer to read and write static files to the Socket connected to the client.
virtual_directories_config
The config file that defines virtual directories. This is a text file with alternating lines of physdir:[physical path] and virtpath:[virtual path], where the [physical path] can be a fully qualified pathname to an existing physical directory or a relative path and the [virtual path] is a URI path starting with the / character that is to be mapped to the physical directory. The virtpath: MUST follow a physdir:. An example of a virtual directory config file:

                      physdir:C:\Projects\Web App Projects\Calendar App
                      virtpath:/apps/calendar
                      physdir:..\..\Users\Docs
                      virtpath:/mydocs
                      physdir:\\mynetworkDrive\share\html
                      virtpath:/share
                    
restricted_directories
A set of directory names that will be denied access if they appear in the URI path. They are separated by commas and must not include any / path separators.
restricted_access_404
If this property is set to true, attempted accesses to restricted directories will return a 404 Not Found instead of the default 403 Forbidden. Set this to true if you want the added protection of less information disclosure of making access to a restricted directory appear as if the directory isn't there at all.

For virtual hosts (serving different websites with unique domain names a.k.a. multihoming), start multiple HTTPFileServerAgent instances and give each one unique service_name and html_directory prop values. Include the domain name (or the protocol, http:// or https://) with the URI in the agent's service_name. Here are some examples of valid service_names:


                http://www.server.org/
                http://www.server.org:8080/
                https://www.server.org/
                www.server.org/
                www.server.org:8080/
                /
              

HTTPProxyAgent

HTTPProxyAgent handles proxies to other web servers. It can provide complete http proxy services to browsers and other clients connecting on the addresses and ports specified in the listeners property, and it can proxy specific URLs from the http.proxy file while the WebServer handles other requests normally.

The http.proxy file lists full URLs or URIs to proxy and where they should be proxied to if the WebServer is running. It consists of name/value pairs separated by newlines. Lines beginning with the # character are ignored as comments. The value of each name/value pair must be a complete URL.

Here are some valid name/value pairs that might be used in the http.proxy file:

http://myserver/proxy_me=http://proxy:1099
http://myserver/proxy_me2=http://proxy1:9000
http://myserver/proxy_me2=http://proxy2:9000
http://myserver/proxy_me2=http://proxy3:9000
When a browser requests /proxy_me, the HTTPProxyAgent contacts the web server at proxy on port 1099 and proxies the request to that server. When a browser requests /proxy_me_too, the HTTPProxyAgent cycles through the 3 web servers indicated, so that the first time the URL is accessed, the connection is proxied to proxy1:9000. The second time, the request is proxied to proxy2:9000, the third request goes to proxy3:9000, the fourth request goes to proxy1:9000, and so on. Both the name and the value of each name/value pair are assumed to be literal, so they will only match the exact path/hostname of the http request.

The servers listed in the http.proxy file are periodically checked to ensure that they are up and responding. The HTTPProxyAgent will not proxy requests to hosts from the http.proxy file that aren't responding.

HTTPProxyAgent also supports listeners, which operate independently of the WebServer to proxy traffic for browsers configured to use a proxy server. Any number of listeners can be started to provide proxy services on specific ports or IPs. Listeners are specified using the listeners prop of the HTTPProxyAgent.

This agent supports the following Props entries:
service_name
The name this agent uses to register with Service Manager. The WebServer's proxy_agent prop must be set to match this agent's service_name, or requests for urls in the http.proxy file will not be handed off to this agent. The default value is http_proxy.agent.
proxy_file
The path to a file containing a list of the available proxies. See above for syntax. Defaults to ./http.proxy
log_requests
When this prop is set to true, the agent will log requests handled by proxy listeners. Requests routed through the WebServer are logged in the WebServer's http logs. Defaults to true.
proxy_log_dir
The path to a directory containing proxy log files. Defaults to .\proxy_logs.
check_interval
Specifies the time to wait (in millisecs) before checking a proxy's status. Defaults to 300000
initial_wait_time
Specifies the time to wait after startup (in millisecs) before checking a proxy's status. Defaults to 600000
listeners
A comma separated list of hostnames or IP addresses (with port number) on which to provide standard HTTP proxy services for browsers. Requests on these ports won't be routed through the WebServer. By default, this prop is not set.
snoop_traffic
A boolean value that determines if data sent through the http proxy will be output to the console or file logger. By default, this prop is false.
HTTPPutAgent This agent can be loaded to support traditional HTTP Put functionality, saving uploaded files to the directory specified in the html_directory prop. To run this agent, the WebServer must have a prop called http_put.agent that matches the HTTPPutAgent's service_name.
service_name
The name this agent uses to register with Service Manager. The default value is http_put.agent.
html_directory
The path to the directory where received files will be stored. Defaults to ./
make_directories
If this prop is set to true, the HTTPPutAgent will create new sub-directories under the server's html_directory when a client uploads a file to a non-existent directory. Defaults to false
HTTPRedirectAgent

This Request Agent is used by the WebServer to determine whether a web request should be redirected and to actually redirect the request by returning the proper redirect code to the client.

If an HTTPRedirectAgent is running and the WebServer's redirect_agent prop is the same as the HTTPRedirectAgent's service_name, the agent will redirect requests for URLs in the http.redirect file. This file lists where to redirect to; URIs with multiple redirects listed in the file will be cycled between the listed redirects, providing a round-robin load distribution scheme.

The file format is name/value pairs delimited by newlines; lines starting with '#' are ignored. Complete URLs must be used to specify redirected URLs and the redirect targets. Here is an example of a redirect file:

http://myserver/redir1/file.htm=http://yahoo.com/
http://myserver/redir2/=http://redirect1:9000/
http://myserver/redir2/==http://redirect2:9000/
http://myserver/redir2/==http://redirect3:9000/
When a browser requests /redir1/file.html, it is redirected to http://yahoo.com. When it requests /redir2, it is redirected to http://redirect1:9000/. The next request for /redir2 is redirected to http://redirect2:9000/. The third incoming request is redirected to http://redirect3:9000/. The fourth request is redirected to http://redirect1:9000/, and the cycle is started again. In this way, the HTTPRedirectAgent can be used for round-robin style load balancing.

There are 2 kinds of name/value pairs used in the redirect configuration file. The first is a direct mapping in the format NAME=VALUE. This mapping tells the redirect agent to redirect PATH NAME to PATH VALUE.

A directly mapped NAME that contains a hostname must have a host in its VALUE. A direct mapping will not recurse subdirectories in a path and each path is regarded as literal. Directly mapped names can by mapped to multiple values if the values are separated by commas. The agent will cycle through each of the different paths given as the value.

The second kind of mapping maps only hosts to hosts, and passes the requested URL along with the redirected request for the mapped host to handle. This is an example of host-to-host mapping syntax:

http://myhost.com>http://www.myhost.com
No path information is included in the syntax of this mapping, only the host names. Any path intended for myhost.com will be mapped to the host www.myhost.com.

Note: Cyclical references in the redirect mappings are not checked, if the redirect file has cyclical references, clients can be put into an infinite loop of redirects.

service_name
The name this agent uses to register with Service Manager. The WebServer's proxy_agent prop must be set to match this agent's service_name, or requests for urls in the http.redirect file will not be handed off to this agent. The default value is http_redirect.agent.
redirect_file
The path to the file where redirect mappings are specified. Defaults to ./http.redirect
check_interval
Specifies the time to wait (in millisecs) between checking to see if the redirect target servers are up. Defaults to 300000
initial_wait_time
Specifies the time to wait after startup (in millisecs) before checking to see if the redirect target servers are up. Defaults to 600000
check_hosts
If set to true, the HTTPRedirectAgent will check every check_interval milliseconds to ensure that servers handling redirects are up. If one goes down, requests are not redirected to that server until it comes back online. Defaults to true
default_port
Specifies the port to redirect requests on. Defaults to 80
RequestAgent

A RequestAgent is a ServiceAgent that implements RequestAgentInterface. Create agents that extend this class to inherit the basic functionality for registering them with the ServiceManager at startup and making it available to other agents as a request based service.

RequestAgents are commonly used in conjunction with the WebServer and SecureWebServer classes to respond to HTTP requests. Here's an example of a simple RequestAgent written in Visual Basic:

 Imports com.neokernel.nk
    Imports com.neokernel.util

    Public Class SimpleVBPage
    Inherits RequestAgent

    Overrides Sub handleRequest(ByVal Request As AgentRequest)
    Dim title, body As String
    body = getString("body")
    Request.println(body)
    End Sub

    Overrides Sub initProps()
    setDefault("service_name", "/simple.agent")
    setDefault("body", "This is output from the SimplePage agent!")
    End Sub
    
    End Class

If a browser requests http://localhost/simple.agent from a server that has started the above SimpleAgent, the browser will display the text

This is output from the SimplePage agent!

Here is the exact same agent written using C#:

 using System;
    using com.neokernel.nk;

    public class SimplePage : RequestAgent
    {
        public override void initProps()
        {
            setDefault("service_name", "/simple.agent");

            setDefault("body", "This is output from the SimplePage agent!");
        }

        public override void handleRequest(HTTPAgentRequest request)
        {
            String body = getString("body");

            request.println( body );
        }
    }
    

XMLRequestAgent This is an abstract implementation of RequestAgent with convenience methods for producing streamed XML-based responses of indeterminate length.

Requirements

Namespace: com.neokernel.nk

Assembly: Neokernel (in Neokernel.exe)

See Also

RequestAgentInterface Members | com.neokernel.nk Namespace