Open Source RWSERVE plugin

Lorem Ipsum

Dolor sit amet

by Read Write Tools
Abstract
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam fermentum gravida magna ut fermentum. Suspendisse eu nulla iaculis, egestas elit ultrices, volutpat quam. Fusce consequat felis eu ipsum finibus, id aliquam orci hendrerit.

Motivation

When developing a new plugin it's necessary to test the working functionality with payloads of various sizes. The data in the payload itself has no particular meaning, only it's presence or absence.

Sometimes these tests work best when the payload is deterministic: where the data and its length are repeatable. Other tests work better when the payload is random in length and value.

This plugin generates a response body either deterministically or randomly based on settings provided in the configuration file, or through query-string variables.

Customization

Classic Lorem Ipsum is the default text for the payload, but custom text can be specified when necessary.

This plugin is open source and can be used as is, or enhanced to provide additional features, such as:

  • Obtaining custom text from data sources on the server.
  • Generating payloads in additional languages. (See ISO-639-3 for "tlh").

Download

The plugin module is available from NPM. Before proceeding, you should already have Node.js and RWSERVE configured and tested.

This module should be installed on your web server in a well-defined place, so that it can be discovered by RWSERVE. The standard place for public domain plugins is /srv/rwserve-plugins.

cd /srv/rwserve-plugins
npm install rwserve-lorem-ipsum

Configuration is Everything

Make the software available by declaring it in the plugins section of your configuration file. For detailed instructions on how to do this, refer to the plugins documentation on the Read Write Tools HTTP/2 Server website.

TL;DR

plugins {
rwserve-lorem-ipsum {
location `/srv/rwserve-plugins/node_modules/rwserve-lorem-ipsum/dist/index.js`
config {
custom-text Bacon ipsum dolor amet tail ribeye pork loin leberkas ham hock cupim buffalo sirloin
repeat 10
randomize false
content-type text/plain
}
}
router {
`/lorem-ipsum*` *methods=GET,HEAD *plugin=rwserve-lorem-ipsum
}
}

The config settings are straightforward:

  • custom-text is the Lorem Ipsum to use in the payload.
  • repeat is the number of times the text should be repeated.
  • randomize is "true" or "false".
  • content-type is the MIME-type identifier to add to the response headers.

When randomize is "false" the same payload is generated each time.

When custom-text is omitted, and randomize is "true" the payload will consist of an arbitrary selection of classic "sentences".

When custom-text is provided, and randomize is "true" the text is split into words and rearranged to provide an arbitrary selection of words.

When content-type is omitted, no "content-type" header is added to the response.

The sample router shown above will route any GET or HEAD request for the virtual resource `/lorem-ipsum`, to the plugin.

Cookbook

A full configuration file with typical settings for a server running on localhost port 7443, is included in this NPM module at etc/lorem-ipsum-config. To use this configuration file, adjust these variables if they don't match your server setup:

$PLUGIN-PATH='/srv/rwserve-plugins/node_modules/rwserve-lorem-ipsum/dist/index.js'
$PRIVATE-KEY='/etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key'
$CERTIFICATE='/etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt'
$DOCUMENTS-PATH='/srv/rwserve/configuration-docs'

Runtime overrides

Sometimes it is desirable to override the settings provided in the configuration file on a request-by-request basis. This can be done by providing the values as query string variables. To do this, use the identical names as above, being sure to urlencode the custom text. For example:

https://localhost:7443/lorem-ipsum?repeat=1000&randomize=true&content-type=text%2Fplain&custom-text=Bacon%20ipsum%20dolor%20amet%20tail%20ribeye%20pork%20loin%20leberkas%20ham%20hock%20cupim%20buffalo%20sirloin

Deployment

Once you've tested the plugin and are ready to go live, adjust your production web server's configuration in /etc/rwserve/rwserve.conf and restart it using systemd. . .

[user@host ~]# systemctl restart rwserve

. . . then monitor its request/response activity with journald.

[user@host ~]# journalctl -u rwserve -ef

Prerequisites

This is a plugin for the Read Write Tools HTTP/2 Server, which works on Linux platforms.

Software Minimum Version Most Recent Version
Ubuntu 16 Xenial Xerus 16 Xenial Xerus
Debian 9 Stretch 10 Buster
openSUSE openSUSE 15.1 openSUSE 15.1
Fedora Fedora 27 Fedora 32
CentOS CentOS 7.4 CentOS 8.1
RHEL RHEL 7.8 RHEL 8.2
RWSERVE RWSERVE 1.0.1 RWSERVE 1.0.47
Node.js Node.js 10.3 Node.js 12.17

Review

Lessons
This plugin demonstrates a basic pattern that many plugins follow:
  • Using default values provided in the configuration file.
  • Honoring request values provided in query-string variables.
Find other plugins for the Read Write Tools HTTP/2 Server using npm with these keywords: rwserve, http2, plugins.

License

The rwserve-lorem-ipsum plugin is licensed under the MIT License.

MIT License

Copyright © 2023 Read Write Tools.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Availability

Source code github
Package installation NPM
Documentation Read Write Hub

Lorem Ipsum — Dolor sit amet

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