OpenResty - General-purpose web service platform for web applications

This document describes OpenResty 0.5.12 released on Nov 20, 2009.

This module implements the server-side OpenResty web service protocol. It provides scriptable and extensible web services for both server-side and client-side (pure AJAX) web applications.

Currently this module can serve as a public web interface to a distributed or desktop PostgreSQL database system. In particular, it provides roles, models, views, actions, captchas, the minisql language, and many more to the web users.

"Another framework?" No, no, no, not all!

OpenResty is not a web application framework like Jifty or Catalyst. Rather, it is

• A REST wrapper for relational databases
• A web runtime for 100% JavaScript web sites and other RIAs.
• A "meta web site" supporting other sites via web services.
• A handy personal or company database which can be accessed from anywhere on the web.
• A (sort of) competitor for the Facebook Data Store API.

We're already running an instance of the OpenResty server on our Yahoo! China's production machines:

http://api.openresty.org/=/version

And there're several (pure-client-side) web sites alreadying taking advantage of the services:

OpenResty's admin site

http://openresty.org/admin/

agentzh's blog and EEEE Works' blog

http://blog.agentzh.org

http://eeeeworks.org

Yisou BBS

http://www.yisou.com/opi/post.html

See OpenResty::Spec::Overview for more detailed information.

OpenResty::CheatSheet also provides a good enough summary for the REST interface.

You'll find my slides for the D2 conference interesting as well:

http://agentzh.org/misc/openresty-d2.pdf

or the original XUL version:

http://agentzh.org/misc/openresty-d2/openresty-d2.xul (Firefox required)

Another good introduction to OpenResty's REST API is summerized in the slides for my Y!ES talk and my Beijing Perl Workshop 2008 talk:

http://agentzh.org/misc/openresty-yes.pdf

and a more pretty (XUL) version can be got from here:

http://agentzh.org/misc/openresty-yes/openresty-yes.xul (Firefox required)

There're also a few interesting discussions about OpenResty on my blog site:

"OpenResty versus Google App Engine"

http://blog.agentzh.org/#post-75

"Google's crawlers captured OpenResty's API!"

http://blog.agentzh.org/#post-79

"Video for my D2 talk about OpenResty and its nifty apps"

http://blog.agentzh.org/#post-81

"The first yahoo.cn feature that is powered by OpenResty"

http://blog.agentzh.org/#post-86

"Client-side web site DIY" (Chinese)

http://blog.agentzh.org/#post-80

"OpenResty 平台相关资料" (Chinese)

http://www.eeeeworks.org/#post-6

This library is still in the beta phase and the API is still in flux. We're just following the "release early, releaes often" guideline. So please check back often ;)

Please see OpenResty::Spec::Install for details :)

bin/

contains some command-line utilities, among which the openresty is the most important one.

lib/

contains all the server code, mostly Perl.

haskell/

contains the RestyScript compiler for OpenResty written in Haskell. Support for both OpenResty Views and Actions is provided.

See haskell/README for more details.

font/

contains the font file (*.ttf) for captcha generation.

etc/

contains the config files, openresty.conf and site_openresty.conf. The latter one takes precedence over the former.

grammar/

contains Parse::Yapp grammar files for the old OpenResty View (or minisql) compiler.

t/

contains the test suite.

demo/

contains a bunch of OpenResty demo apps.

inc/

generated by Module::Install for CPAN building system.

OpenResty takes runtime performance very seriously because we have to run it on our not-so-good servers and support lots of Yahoo! China's online products with very heavy traffic.

OpenResty prefers modules with XS over pure Perl ones and uses cache aggressively. It's also in favor of source-filter based solutions provided by Filter::QuasiQuote to reduce the length of subroutine calling chains and the number of indirections. Finally, the restyscript compiler is also written in carefully optimized Haskell code to maximize speed.

The benchmark results for OpenResty 0.5.3's test suite on a PentiumIV 3.0GHz machine is given below:

in-process frontend + PgMocked backend

    DELETE: 4 ms (157 trials)
    POST: 23 ms (493 trials)
    PUT: 5 ms (132 trials)
    GET: 4 ms (648 trials)

lighttpd fastcgi frontend + local Pg backend

    DELETE: 29 ms (193 trials)
    POST: 30 ms (815 trials)
    PUT: 11 ms (138 trials)
    GET: 9 ms (763 trials)

lighttpd fastcgi frontend + remote PgFarm backend

    DELETE: 99 ms (193 trials)
    POST: 98 ms (815 trials)
    PUT: 41 ms (138 trials)
    GET: 24 ms (763 trials)

For the very latest version of this module, check out the source from the Git repos below:

http://github.com/agentzh/openresty/tree/master

There is anonymous access to all. If you'd like a commit bit, please let us know. :)

Subscribe to the openresty Google Group here:

  L<http://groups.google.com/group/openresty>

Below is a list of currently planned release milestones (but it's also supposed to change as we go):

0.5.x (Where we are)

Action API and an enhanced version of the Model API.

0.6.x

Migrate the View handler to the same style and implementation of the Action handler, i.e., using explicit parameter list and taking advantage of the Haskell version of the restyscript compiler.

Compiling view definition to native PostgreSQL functions is also supposed to realize in this series.

0.7.x

Attachment API, which supports binary file uploading and downloading.

0.8.x

Mail API, which introduces builtin Models for email sentbox and inbox based on third-party POP3/STMP servers.

It will also allow actions to be triggered and/or confirmed by emails.

0.9.x

Prophet/Git integration.

Please don't hesitate to tell us what you love to see in future releases of OpenResty ;)

For the project's TODO list, please check out http://svn.openfoundry.org/openapi/trunk/TODO

There must be some serious bugs lurking somewhere given the current status of the implementation and test suite.

Please report bugs or send wish-list to http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=OpenResty.

Agent Zhang (agentzh) <agentzh at yahoo dot cn>

Xunxin Wan (万珣新) <wanxunxin at gmail dot com >

chaoslawful (王晓哲) <chaoslawful at gmail dot com>

Lei Yonghua (leiyh)

Laser Henry (laser) <laserhenry at gmail dot com>

Yu Ting (yuting) <yuting at yahoo dot cn>

For a complete list of the contributors, please see http://svn.openfoundry.org/openapi/trunk/AUTHORS.

OpenResty is licensed under the BSD License:

Copyright (c) 2007-2008, Yahoo! China EEEE Works, Alibaba Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2007-2008, Agent Zhang (agentzh). All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• Neither the name of the Yahoo! China EEEE Works, Alibaba Inc. nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

OpenResty::Spec::Overview, openresty, OpenResty::Spec::REST_cn, OpenResty::CheatSheet, WWW::OpenResty, WWW::OpenResty::Simple.