Serring up Ada as a Web Server

Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[alb348]

Hi,

I don't know the first thing about using a programming language on a web server, except for the fact that it lets you run server-side programs that interact remotely with the clients, serving web pages, etc.

I already know that Ada has AWS, with all the libraries for this purpose.

What I need to know is: how do I install Ada in the first place onto the server, supposing that for my domain I use a regular commercial web hosting company? 
I know that many/most web hosting companies provide PHP by default on their systems. But Ada?
Do I have to make a special request to the hosting company?

Is the Ada+AWS system something that the hosting company has to set up for me, or is it something that I can do myself, after gaining access to my web space on their servers?

Thanks

Alby

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[alb348]

Arrgh, I typed Serring instead of Setting in the title!
You always realize this the minute you hit the Enter key! 
Sorry about the confusion

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[J-P. Rosen]

Le 29/09/2013 21:15, alb348@gmail.com a écrit :
> I already know that Ada has AWS, with all the libraries for this
> purpose.
> 
> What I need to know is: how do I install Ada in the first place onto
> the server, supposing that for my domain I use a regular commercial
> web hosting company? I know that many/most web hosting companies
> provide PHP by default on their systems. But Ada?
A usual site is served by a server, usually Apache, and PHP is a
language interpreted by the server.

The situation is different with Ada+AWS: your program replaces the
server itself. There is nothing your provider can do for you: you need
to have the right to run your own programs; and preferably, the right to
install your own software, in order to compile the program. It all
depends on the kind of hosting you have.

-- 
J-P. Rosen
Adalog
2 rue du Docteur Lombard, 92441 Issy-les-Moulineaux CEDEX
Tel: +33 1 45 29 21 52, Fax: +33 1 45 29 25 00
http://www.adalog.fr

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[alb348]

On Sunday, September 29, 2013 9:15:12 PM UTC+2, alb...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> 
> 
> I don't know the first thing about using a programming language on a web server, except for the fact that it lets you run server-side programs that interact remotely with the clients, serving web pages, etc.
> 
> 
> 
> I already know that Ada has AWS, with all the libraries for this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> What I need to know is: how do I install Ada in the first place onto the server, supposing that for my domain I use a regular commercial web hosting company? 
> 
> I know that many/most web hosting companies provide PHP by default on their systems. But Ada?
> 
> Do I have to make a special request to the hosting company?
> 
> 
> 
> Is the Ada+AWS system something that the hosting company has to set up for me, or is it something that I can do myself, after gaining access to my web space on their servers?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> 
> 
> Alby

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[alb348]

On Sunday, September 29, 2013 10:32:39 PM UTC+2, J-P. Rosen wrote:
> Le 29/09/2013 21:15, alb...@gmail.com a écrit :
> 
> > I already know that Ada has AWS, with all the libraries for this
> 
> > purpose.
> 
> > 
> 
> > What I need to know is: how do I install Ada in the first place onto
> 
> > the server, supposing that for my domain I use a regular commercial
> 
> > web hosting company? I know that many/most web hosting companies
> 
> > provide PHP by default on their systems. But Ada?
> 
> A usual site is served by a server, usually Apache, and PHP is a
> 
> language interpreted by the server.
> 
> 
> 
> The situation is different with Ada+AWS: your program replaces the
> server itself. There is nothing your provider can do for you: you need
> to have the right to run your own programs; and preferably, the right to
> install your own software, in order to compile the program. It all
> depends on the kind of hosting you have.

Do all web hosting companies allow customers to install their own programs? 

Will it cost more than using the default package (with PHP)?

And how difficult is it to setup an Ada+AWS system remotely onto the server?

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[Luke A. Guest]

> Do all web hosting companies allow customers to install their own programs? 

No

> Will it cost more than using the default package (with PHP)?
> 
> And how difficult is it to setup an Ada+AWS system remotely onto the server?

Not hard.

I've written a SCGI lib which allows you to get requests from an external
web server and send HTML back over sockets. See GitHub

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[J-P. Rosen]

Le 29/09/2013 23:08, alb348@gmail.com a écrit :
>> The situation is different with Ada+AWS: your program replaces the
>> > server itself. There is nothing your provider can do for you: you need
>> > to have the right to run your own programs; and preferably, the right to
>> > install your own software, in order to compile the program. It all
>> > depends on the kind of hosting you have.
> Do all web hosting companies allow customers to install their own programs? 
All? I don't know. Choose a company that does!

> Will it cost more than using the default package (with PHP)?
Once again, this is a question for your hosting company. For Adalog (and
Ada-Europe, see http://www.ada-europe2014.org for an example of a site
powered by Ada/AWS), I used shares of virtual machines. I have complete
access to the machine, including choosing my OS among many, installing
software, running whatever I want, and connecting through ssh.

For info, my provider is Gandi. Cheap and very convenient. Good support too.

> And how difficult is it to setup an Ada+AWS system remotely onto the server?
> 
It's not different from a local machine. In my case, I'm running Debian,
so I installed Gnat+AWS with a couple of "apt-get install" through ssh.
I transfered my sources with FTP, and recompiled.

I also installed Webmin to create users and launch the program at
start-up without having to fiddle with parameter files.

-- 
J-P. Rosen
Adalog
2 rue du Docteur Lombard, 92441 Issy-les-Moulineaux CEDEX
Tel: +33 1 45 29 21 52, Fax: +33 1 45 29 25 00
http://www.adalog.fr

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[Thomas Løcke]

On 09/29/2013 09:15 PM, alb348@gmail.com wrote:

> Is the Ada+AWS system something that the hosting company has to set up for me,
 > or is it something that I can do myself, after gaining access to my 
web space on their servers?


http://www.inspirel.com/aws-hosting/

That's an option, unless you're tied to your current host.


-- 
Thomas Løcke | thomas@12boo.net | http://12boo.net

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[alb348]

> http://www.inspirel.com/aws-hosting/

From what I understand, with this solution I would not have to set up the Ada+AWS system by myself. I would be able to start using AWS right away.
Is this right?

But, isn't this inspirel a bit too costly (200 euros yearly), as compared to other providers?

Is this the only provider that offers Ada+AWS pre-installed? I googled but did not find any other.

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[Vadim Godunko]

On Sunday, September 29, 2013 10:15:12 PM UTC+3, alb...@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> I don't know the first thing about using a programming language on a web server, except for the fact that it lets you run server-side programs that interact remotely with the clients, serving web pages, etc.
> 
There is implementation of FastCGI protocol in Matreshka:

http://forge.ada-ru.org/matreshka

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[Maciej Sobczak]

Hi, Inspirel here.

First of all, thanks to Thomas for mentioning our AWS hosting offer.

> > http://www.inspirel.com/aws-hosting/
> 
> From what I understand, with this solution I would not have to set up the Ada+AWS system by myself. I would be able to start using AWS right away.

Right. The software is already installed and we recognize that you might need to install more of it.

> But, isn't this inspirel a bit too costly (200 euros yearly), as compared to other providers?

There are no other providers that offer AWS hosting. ;-)

The problem with AWS is that it is basically a natively compiled and long-running service and this is what makes it different from typical web hosting offers, which assume rarely executed scripts (PHP, Python, etc.). For this to happen the user gets not only a drive space, but also a regular shell account so that he can actually compile his server in the same environment where it will be executed. That's why we expect small number of users per machine, which makes cost considerations different than with PHP, where on a single machine you could put tens or even hundreds of users and give them rights only to upload their scrpts.
In other words, the AWS hosting offer is conceptually much closer to dedicated server offers and this is where the pricing should be compared.

> Is this the only provider that offers Ada+AWS pre-installed? I googled but did not find any other.

-- 
Maciej Sobczak * http://www.inspirel.com

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[J-P. Rosen]

Le 30/09/2013 08:05, alb348@gmail.com a écrit :
>> http://www.inspirel.com/aws-hosting/
> 
> From what I understand, with this solution I would not have to set up
> the Ada+AWS system by myself. I would be able to start using AWS
> right away. Is this right?
I don't know the details, I have the pointer but I never tried their
service. But bear in mind that AWS is a library, you have to write the
full program in Ada that uses it. Ada is not an embedded language in a
server.

> But, isn't this inspirel a bit too costly (200 euros yearly), as
> compared to other providers?
> 
> Is this the only provider that offers Ada+AWS pre-installed? I
> googled but did not find any other.
> 
Presumably yes, but once again, you can run your program on any real or
virtual machine.

-- 
J-P. Rosen
Adalog
2 rue du Docteur Lombard, 92441 Issy-les-Moulineaux CEDEX
Tel: +33 1 45 29 21 52, Fax: +33 1 45 29 25 00
http://www.adalog.fr

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[johannes falcone]

so with the scgi library, how do you write a web app with input forms and lists of search results n stuff?

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[johannes falcone]

so with the scgi library, how do you write a web app with input forms and lists of search results

Re: Serring up Ada as a Web Server

[Lucretia]

On Monday, 7 October 2013 01:20:23 UTC+1, johannes falcone  wrote:
> so with the scgi library, how do you write a web app with input forms and lists of search results n stuff?

Even though it's not complete and sending files is not possible yet, you can at least send pages and receive data back.

See https://github.com/Lucretia/ether/blob/master/apps/test.adb for an example.