CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++jsonlinuxweb-servicesrest
Ritesh Prajapati
Ritesh Prajapati

Reputation: 983

How to Create Restful Web Services using c++ language and JSON Parser

I am working on Embedded Linux and I want Restful web services to run on my Linux Custom Board.

My objective is to send/receive data (in JSON format) to/from web server (httpd server).

Also, I want to create that Restful Web services using C++ language.

Please see below idea about need of Restful Web Services for my Linux Custom Board.

  1. First, I will send HTTP request with JSON format data through httpd server which is running on my linux board.

  2. Then, I want to create one binary or server which implements this Restful Web Services in c++ language which is used to handle HTTP request.

  3. Then, This C++ binary will send response back to httpd server for display purpose over web browser.

Does anyone have idea or example about how to create Restful Web Services using C++ language?

Any help on Restful is welcome.

Does any one has idea about ffead and its functionalities which fulfills my Restful Web Services or not?

Upvotes: 49

Views: 105805

Answers (9)

Ben Crowhurst
Ben Crowhurst

Reputation: 8490

Restbed can address your requirements with the exception of a JSON parser. However, combining a solution with one of the many C++ JSON implementations already available requires very little work.

#include <memory>
#include <string>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <sstream>
#include <jsonbox.h>
#include <restbed>

using namespace std;
using namespace restbed;

void get_method_handler( const shared_ptr< Session > session )
{
    const auto request = session->get_request( );

    size_t content_length = request->get_header( "Content-Length", 0 );

    session->fetch( content_length, [ ]( const shared_ptr< Session >& session, const Bytes& body )
    {
        JsonBox::Value json;
        json.loadFromString( string( body.begin( ), body.end( ) ) );

        //perform awesome solutions logic...

        stringstream stream;
        json.writeToStream( stream );
        string response_body = stream.str( );

        session->close( OK, response_body, { { "Content-Length", ::to_string( response_body.length( ) }, { "Content-Type": "application/json" } } );
    } );
}

int main( const int, const char** )
{
    auto resource = make_shared< Resource >( );
    resource->set_path( "/resource" );
    resource->set_method_handler( "GET", get_method_handler );

    auto settings = make_shared< Settings >( );
    settings->set_port( 1984 );
    settings->set_default_header( "Connection", "close" );

    Service service;
    service.publish( resource );
    service.start( settings );

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Alternative RESTful frameworks

Alternative JSON frameworks

Upvotes: 39

Serge Rogatch
Serge Rogatch

Reputation: 15090

I'm using oatpp in combination with nlohmann JSON. Though you may get away with purely oatpp as it has built-in JSON handling features. Please, see a step by step guide.

Upvotes: 6

JMS
JMS

Reputation: 181

The minimal web service capable of using SHTML would include Open SSL..

Here is an example of a simple C++ SHTML Server using TCP/IP calls no framework other than OpenSSL

Here is a pretty comprehensive list of Restful Frameworks by language like 300 of them..

As of writing this answer searching that more comprehensive list for "C++" yields more than 60 entries.

Upvotes: 2

The Quantum Physicist
The Quantum Physicist

Reputation: 26356

I know this is late, but something new has come up a year or two ago.

If you're into hardcore asynchronous programming for high-performance, you can consider boost::beast. It's a layer above boost::asio (the generic tcp/udp and i/o library) that has both http(s) and websocket servers/clients.

Keep in mind that these are ideal for performance and full freedom in multithreading (you can literally run your server on thousands of threads with almost perfect caching if you have a server that can take it), but they have a steep learning-curve. Do this only if you need to have absolute control over everything!

Upvotes: 6

BigONotation
BigONotation

Reputation: 4538

If you are building a RESTful service client, you should consider a library such as Casablanca (which is maintained by Microsoft and is a cross-platform solution for accessing RESTful APIs) https://github.com/Microsoft/cpprestsdk.

Otherwise you could also use libcurl https://curl.haxx.se/libcurl

There are C++ bindings for curl. Depending on your board, libcurl might already be installed. All you have to do would be to use the C++ bindings.

Both libraries handle http/https. libcurl does not provide a json parser but you could easily combine it with any C++ json parser available. Casablanca is complete and built on an asynchronous model. It relies however on the Boost libraries. Nevertheless I have used on an Intel Edison board with success.

Upvotes: 3

gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb

Reputation: 52689

Use an embedded web server, such as Mongoose, CivetWeb or NXWeb. (see this post for more details)

Generally these are trivial to embed in your application, then you only need a JSON library to parse/create JSON data in the web server route handlers. REST is, after all, only HTTP requests so this is easy to implement using one of the above.

Upvotes: 2

SirDarius
SirDarius

Reputation: 42959

There are some frameworks like CppCMS that embed their own HTTP server, so you might not need something as heavy as Apache httpd.

I'm assuming your REST service will not be under heavy load.

Also, CppCMS supports JSON out of the box, see http://cppcms.com/wikipp/en/page/cppcms_1x_json.

Upvotes: 1

shuiyu
shuiyu

Reputation: 181

For send/receive data in JSON format, try jsoncpp

Upvotes: 2

doron
doron

Reputation: 28932

Probably your best bet is to use FastCGI to create a module to interface with your web server. This should prevent you from having to implement your own HTTP server.

Upvotes: 1

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