Lighttpd, pronounced "lighty", is a powerful light-weight web server that makes an ideal candidate for use in building dedicated SOAP application server.  In this article, I explore the use of Lighttpd as the engine in serving SOAP requests.  The following criteria was used in selecting the candidates:

• small operational and memory footprint
• able to handle multiple simultaneous requests
• capable of running HTTP and/or HTTPS over SSL for encryption
• Perl CGI capable
• easy to configure

Step 1 - Building lighttpd

1. download openssl from www.openssl.org (version 0.9.8i)
2. download libpcre from http://www.pcre.org/ (version 7.8)
3. download libz from http://www.zlib.net (version 1.2.3)
4. download lighttpd from http://www.lighttpd.net/ (version 1.4.20)

zlib

./configure --shared --prefix=/export/opt/SOAPserver
make
make install

openssl

./Configure --prefix=/export/opt/SOAPserver zlib-dynamic shared solaris-sparcv9-cc
make
make install

libpcre

./configure --prefix=/export/opt/SOAPserver
make
make install

PATH=$PATH:/export/opt/SOAPserver
export PATH

lighttpd

./configure --prefix=/export/opt/SOAPserver \
    --with-openssl=/export/opt/SOAPserver   \
    --with-zlib=/export/opt/SOAPserver/lib  \
    --with-pcre
make
make install

Step 2 - Configuring Lighttpd as a SOAP server

1. create a self-signed x509 certificate using openssl
2. create lighttpd.conf to run SSL on port 4443 using our openssl certificate
3. configure lighttpd to run CGI programs
4. install a SOAP CGI handler for our program

Creating self-signed Certificates using OpenSSL

OPENSSL_CONF=/export/opt/SOAPserver/ssl/openssl.cnf; export OPENSSL_CONF

# openssl genrsa 1024 > server.key
Generating RSA private key, 1024 bit long modulus
...++++++
........................++++++
e is 65537 (0x10001)
# chmod 400 server.key

# openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -sha1 -days 365 -key server.key > server.cert
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:
Locality Name (eg, city) []:
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []:localhost
Email Address []:
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 

# cat server.cert server.key > server.pem
# rm server.key
# chmod 400 server.pem

Configuring lighttpd to run SSL on port 4443

server.document-root = "/export/opt/SOAPserver/docroot"
server.username = "www"
server.groupname = "www"
server.port = 4443

/export/opt/SOAPserver/sbin/lighttpd -D -f /export/opt/SOAPserver/etc/lighttpd.conf &

ssl.engine = "enable"
ssl.pemfile = "/export/opt/SOAPserver/etc/server.pem"

Configure lighttpd to run CGI programs

server.modules = ( "mod_cgi" )
cgi.assign = ( ".pl"  => "/usr/bin/perl",
               ".cgi" => "/usr/bin/perl"
)

 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use SOAP::Transport::HTTP;
 
SOAP::Transport::HTTP::CGI   
    -> dispatch_to('Demo')     
    -> handle;
 
package Demo;
sub hi {                     
    return "hello, world";     
}
sub bye {                    
    return "goodbye, cruel world";
}
 

 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
use SOAP::Lite;
print SOAP::Lite
-> uri('https://localhost:4443/Demo')
-> proxy('https://localhost:4443/hibye.cgi')
-> hi()
-> result;