Webber Web Server

Webber is a modern, high-performance Go web server inspired by Nginx, with support for static file hosting (optimized for Vue.js, React, Angular, and other SPA builds), reverse proxying, WebSocket, rate limiting, gzip compression, in-memory caching, HTTP/2, and TLS.

Features

• Logging Middleware: Logs every HTTP request and response time, providing valuable insights into server activity.
• Rate Limiting: Protects against abuse by limiting requests per client IP. Configurable via RateLimitRPS and RateLimitBurst.
• Gzip Compression: Automatically compresses responses for supported clients, significantly reducing bandwidth usage and improving load times.
• URL Rewriting: Demonstrates how to redirect or rewrite URLs (e.g., /old/example to /new/example). Try this example.
• Reverse Proxy & Load Balancing: Distributes incoming requests across multiple backend servers using a round-robin strategy, enhancing availability and performance. See the proxy endpoint.
• WebSocket Support: Provides a dedicated endpoint for real-time, bidirectional communication, ideal for interactive applications. Access it at /ws.
• Static File Serving with Caching: Efficiently serves static assets from the configured directory with in-memory caching based on CacheTTLSeconds.
• HTTP/2 and TLS: Secure and high-performance communication enabled by default, ensuring data integrity and faster connections.
• SPA Routing Support: Unmatched routes serve index.html for client-side navigation (Vue.js, React, Angular, etc.), crucial for single-page applications.

Getting Started

This section will guide you through the initial setup and configuration of your Webber web server.

1. Installation

curl -sSL https://webber-docs.vercel.app/install.sh | sudo bash

The provided install script automates the setup process, performing the following actions:

• Creates a dedicated system user and group webber for enhanced security.
• Sets up essential directories for configuration /etc/webber and static files /var/www/webber.
• Downloads pre-built Webber binary and installs it to /usr/local/bin.
• Generates a default config.json file in /etc/webber with common settings.
• Prepares for static file serving by creating a symlink from /etc/webber/static to /var/www/webber.
• Generates self-signed TLS certificates cert.pem and key.pem for HTTPS, if not already present.
• Grants necessary network binding capabilities to the Webber binary for privileged ports 443.
• Configures and starts a systemd service to manage the Webber server, ensuring it runs automatically and restarts on failure.

2. Configuration

Customize your Webber Web Server by editing the /etc/webber/config.json file. Here's a detailed breakdown of the configurable parameters:

{
  "port": "443",              // The port on which the server will listen (e.g., "80" for HTTP, "443" for HTTPS).
  "static_dir": "/var/www/webber", // The directory from which static files (like index.html, JS, CSS, images) will be served.
  "rate_limit_rps": 10.0,     // The maximum number of requests per second allowed per client IP address.
  "rate_limit_burst": 20,     // The maximum burst capacity for the rate limiter, allowing temporary spikes in requests.
  "cache_ttl_seconds": 300,   // The time-to-live (TTL) for static file cache entries, in seconds.
  "certFile": "cert.pem",     // Path to your TLS certificate file (automatically generated by install.sh if not present).
  "keyFile": "key.pem",       // Path to your TLS key file (automatically generated by install.sh if not present).
  "debug": false              // Set to true for more verbose logging, false for production environments.
}

3. Deploy an SPA (Vue.js, React, Angular)

Vue.js

1. Build your Vue.js project:

npm run build

2. Copy the contents of the dist/ folder to /var/www/webber:

sudo cp -r dist/* /var/www/webber/
sudo chown -R webber:webber /var/www/webber
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/webber

3. Restart Webber to apply changes:

sudo systemctl restart webber

4. Visit https://localhost/ to see your Vue app in action.

React

1. Build your React project:

npm run build

2. Copy the contents of the build/ folder to /var/www/webber:

sudo cp -r build/* /var/www/webber/
sudo chown -R webber:webber /var/www/webber
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/webber

3. Restart Webber to apply changes:

sudo systemctl restart webber

4. Visit https://localhost/ to see your React app in action.

Angular

1. Build your Angular project:

ng build --prod

2. Copy the contents of the dist/<project-name>/ folder to /var/www/webber:

sudo cp -r dist/<project-name>/* /var/www/webber/
sudo chown -R webber:webber /var/www/webber
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/webber

3. Restart Webber to apply changes:

sudo systemctl restart webber

4. Visit https://localhost/ to see your Angular app in action.

Default Welcome Page

The current index.html you are viewing serves as a comprehensive demonstration of Webber's features and configuration options. To deploy your own single-page application, simply replace this file with your SPA's build output as detailed in the deployment instructions above.

Static File MIME Types

Webber automatically provides correct MIME types for all common static assets, including CSS, JavaScript, fonts, SVG, and more. This ensures seamless compatibility and optimal performance for modern frontend builds.

TLS Certificates

The install.sh script conveniently generates self-signed certificates for immediate use if no custom certificates are provided. For production environments, it is highly recommended to replace the default certificates located at /etc/webber/cert.pem and /etc/webber/key.pem with your own trusted TLS certificates.

Service Management

Manage the Webber service using standard systemd commands:

sudo systemctl status webber    # Check the status of the Webber service
sudo systemctl restart webber   # Restart the Webber service to apply configuration changes
sudo journalctl -u webber       # View the logs for the Webber service

Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and feature requests are highly welcome!
Please feel free to open a Pull Request (PR) or submit an issue on the GitHub repository.