Serve-It! FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

    Author  : Dirk Weyand
    Version : 1.1.0
    Date    : 28/06/2007

Contents

1. Purpose

This is a technical FAQ about Serve-It!, the Smart Server Engine by TGD-Consulting.

New questions can be submitted here.

2. Frequently Asked Questions

2.1 How do I get the Status-window ?

To display the Status-window just press with the left mouse button (LMB) at the "S"-button (S=Status) in the upper right corner of the main-panel, or press the corresponding server-instance number at the same place of the proxy- or http-panel.

The Status-window displays some general information about Serve-It! and the appropriate server-instances. You can start, stop, add and delete server-instances here.

2.2 How do I start / stop a PROXY- or HTTP-Server-Instance ?

Either you can start / stop a server-instance through the Status-window, or your just press with the LMB / RMB on the corresponding server-instance, e.g. a LMB-click on "HTTP-Server" starts the server-instance, a click with the right mouse button (RMB) will stop it again.

A running server-instance listening to a TCP-port is signaled by a green colored Status-button. An inactive, stopped server-instance is colored red.

Remember, once a server-instance is started, it will be automatically running the next time you start Serve-It!.

2.3 How do I use the Remote-Server-Administration feature of Serve-It! ?

The recent release of Serve-It! provides a Remote-Server-Administration interface (RSA) based on an embedded REBOL-CGI. Itīs a fast and powerful web-interface, which allows you to configure all settings known by Serve-It!īs View-GUI from remote.

This feature is disabled by default. To activate the RSA do the following steps:

• choose and setup a HTTP-Server you want to use for RSA (e.g. HTTP-Server-Instance 1 at port: 80),
• create the CGI-Path beneath the document-root in the filesystem,
• create an empty dummy file called "Admin.r" in that directory (e.g. type "> close open/new %[CGI-path]/Admin.r" in the REBOL console),
• enable the CGI-Cache at the advanced options of the chosen server-instance to activate the embedded admin-CGI (RSA),
• itīs strongly recommended to setup Authentication and Restrict-Access options accordant to secure your server,
• finally open your favourite browser at a remote client and enter the server-URI (e.g. http://192.168.1.1:80/cgi-bin/Admin.r) to use the RSA-interface of Serve-It!.
• The Remote-Server-Administration interface of Serve-It! is looking like this:
  

2.4 How do I use REBOL-CGI scripts ?

Serve-It! has native support of REBOL-CGI scripts. The default directory for CGIs is ./cgi-bin/ beneath the document-root of a HTTP-Server-Instance. Try these steps to get your REBOL-CGIs running:

• create the CGI-Path beneath the document-root in the filesystem,
• copy any CGI you want to use with this server instance to that directory,
• set the CGI-Cache flag in the advanced options section to minimize the I/O to the filesystem during CGI processing. Only REBOL-CGI scripts are stored in the CGI-Cache!

2.5 Which MIME-types are supported by Serve-It! ?

Serve-It! has build in support for a lot of different MIME-types. The default MIME-type is text/html .

These are the MIME-types Serve-It! can handle from scratch:

    "txt"  "text/plain" 
    "r"    "text/plain" 
    "asp"  "text/html" 
    "html" "text/html" 
    "htm"  "text/html" 
    "php"  "text/html" 
    "xml"  "text/xml" 
    "gif"  "image/gif" 
    "jpg"  "image/jpeg" 
    "jpeg" "image/jpeg" 
    "png"  "image/png" 
    "tif"  "image/tiff" 
    "tiff" "image/tiff" 
    "mp3"  "audio/mp3" 
    "mid"  "audio/midi" 
    "m2a"  "audio/mpeg" 
    "m1v"  "video/mpeg" 
    "m2v"  "video/mpeg" 
    "mp2"  "video/mpeg" 
    "mpg"  "viedo/mpeg" 
    "mpeg" "video/mpeg" 
    "mpe"  "video/mpeg" 
    "mp4"  "video/mp4" 
    "mov"  "video/quicktime" 
    "qt"   "video/quicktime" 
    "avi"  "video/ms-video" 
    "wmv"  "video/ms-wmv" 
    "dif"  "video/x-dv" 
    "dv"   "video/x-dv" 
    "exe"  "application/octet-stream" 
    "lha"  "application/octet-stream" 
    "zip"  "application/x-zip-compressed" 
    "rar"  "application/x-rar-compressed"

2.6 How can I add new MIME-types ?

It is quite easy to add your own or new MIME-types:

• to make Serve-It! recognize additional content types, just create a simple ASCII-textfile called "content-type-defs.r",
• list pairs of file-extensions ( without the dot ) and content types in that file as shown above,
• place the content type definition file in the same directory as Serve-It! . It's loaded at program start.

2.7 What is the toggle server feature ?

The so-called toggle server feature allows you to stop the current server-instance and start the next instance with a minimum effort of user interaction.

Press with the RMB at the Status-button, or chose the Toggle-button at the RSA-interface to toggle the selected server-instance.

2.8 How can I disable the internal response-buffer / cache ?

The response-buffer is an internal cache, which stores static webcontent in memory (default cache-size: 2MB). It is used to shorten the server response-time upon client-requests and to minimize filesystem-I/O. This internal cache is enabled by default, but you can easily disable it using the Remote-Server-Administration interface of Serve-It! :

• enter the Remote-Server-Administration interface,
• disable the caching checkbox for the response-buffer at the bottom of "Serve-It! - O P T I O N S",
• press the "Set"-button in the upper right to disable the response-buffer.

2.9 How do I alter the response-buffer / cache ?

• Enter the Remote-Server-Administration interface,
• make sure that the response-buffer is enabled,
• configure the cache-size to your needs (default cache-size: 2MB),
• press the "Set"-button to make the changes take care.

Please remember that the response-buffer / cache is automatically initialized, if a HTTP-server instance is started. You can manually clear the cache using the init "Cache" link at the response-buffer options. To list the content of the current response-buffer follow the "in use" link.

2.10 to be continued . . .

. . . ask for more !

3. Glossary

Copyright 2005 - 2022 TGD-Consulting   -  WWW.TGD-CONSULTING.DE
created on 28-June-2007 at 8:10:42