CS 431/531 Web Server Design - Fall 2022

Author: Prashant

Old Dominion University

Docker Command

Build Docker Image

docker build --tag web:v1.0 .

Run Docker Image

docker run --rm -it -p 3001:80 -v ${PWD}:/app --entrypoint bash web:v1.1

This repository contains assignments and resources related to the CS 431/531 Web Server Design course at Old Dominion University, taught by Dr. Sawood Alam. The course focuses on developing a standards-compliant HTTP web server with an in-depth exploration of HTTP protocols, web architecture, and server-side execution.

Course Details

• Instructor: Dr. Sawood Alam (@ibnesayeed)
• Institution: Old Dominion University (ODU)

Topics Covered

The course covers a wide range of topics related to web server design, including but not limited to:

1. HTTP Basics
   • Introduction to HTTP
   • Web Architecture (W3C)
   • Using telnet, curl, and wget
2. URIs, Logs, and MIME Types
   • Git/GitHub workflow
   • Socket Programming
   • Python for Web Servers
3. Conditionals & Redirections
   • ETags and Date-time
   • Introduction to Docker
4. Long-lived Connections & Pipelines
5. Range and Partial Content Handling
6. Character, Content, and Transfer Encodings
7. Content Negotiation
8. Authentication and Authorization
9. Unsafe Methods & CGI
10. HTTPS, HTTP/2, HTTP/3
11. REST and HATEOAS Concepts
12. Web Archiving (WARC, IPFS, IPWB)

Assignments

All assignments are done on top of the previous one, resulting in a single main branch that contains all the assignments.

Assignment	Description
Assignment 1	Basic web server implementation with logs, methods, headers, and MIME types.
Assignment 2	Conditionals, redirections, long-lived, and pipelined connections.
Assignment 3	Encoding, content negotiation, and partial content.
Assignment 4	Authentication and authorization mechanisms.
Assignment 5	Unsafe methods and server-side execution with CGI.

References

• RFC 7230 - HTTP/1.1 Message Syntax
• RFC 7231 - HTTP/1.1 Semantics and Content
• Docker Official Documentation
• Memento 101