How to create a web-service easily?

Creating web-services with SWI-Prolog is a breeze. This howto is intended as your first bluffer's guide. All examples come with fully operational source-code.

• Hello World
• Development support for web-servers
• Hello World in HTML
• Rule definition facilities (html//1 rules)
• Processing HTTP-parameters
• How do I upload a file, preserving the file-name?
• Adding style (CSS and simple JavaScript) to your pages
• Serving plain files
• Making your web-server scalable

Deploying Prolog-based web-servers

• Making the server accessible at port 80
• Running the server under VNC
• Running the server from Unix (x)inetd
• Running the server from Unix init

This is work in progress! If you want to contribute or comment, send mail to me or to the mailinglist

Example code

We have two servers available with complete source. One is the server that runs http://www.swi-prolog.org, which can be downloaded through GIT from the repository plweb.git. The other is ClioPatria. Although ClioPatria targets semantic web (RDF) applications, it is also useful as a starting point for general purpose web-servers.

Here is a very incomplete selection of functionality that you can find in these servers:

• SWI-Prolog.org
  • Call CGI scripts (http_cgi.pl)
  • Autocompletion (autocomplete.pl)
  • PlDoc based wiki processing (wiki.pl, wiki_edit.pl)
  • Stress testing (directory stress)
  • Logfile handling (directory logs)
• ClioPatria
  • User management, OpenID
  • Extension packs (CPACK)
  • Modular server configuration
  • Server statistics
  • Handle messages from Prolog
  • Lots of RDF stuff

Plans (todo)

• AJAX interaction (YUI, simple table, tree, N-Queens code?)
• PWP
• Logfiles and processing thereof
• Stress-testing by replaying logfiles