PyWebServer

A Python Webserver program that would locally host a website you're working on your computer, or even on your local network. Made without any third-party Python libraries, and made with only python libraries that are built into Python 3. So that you don't need to worry about installing external packages through pip, and not worry about possible compatility issues.

Features

• The IP address of the server can be IPv4/INET or IPv6/INET6.
• The server can not only be an HTTP server, but it can be a HTTPS server (make sure you specify the certificate and key).
• Server IP (localhost or your own) and port number can be specified through commandline arguments.
• Server IP (localhost or your own) and port number can be specified through a json configuration file. So you can have the server automatically startup when the program is executed.
• The webserver bind the server ip address with the user's ip address (IPv4/INET only) to have the webpage be hosted on the user's local network (may not work on Windows if you have multiple network adapters such as virtual adapters).
• Automatically opens the webpage when the user starts the webserver.
• Has authentication to only allow users to access the webpage, if they enter the right credentials.
• Can log requests sent to the webserver (can be useful for debugging).
• Logs blacklisted clients, non-whitelisted clients, failed authentications, and more.
• You can blacklist (deny) or whitelist (allow) ip addresses. If an IP Address is blacklisted, then it will either show a Error 403 page, or it will redirect the blacklisted client to a different page. If an IP address is whitelisted, then it will only allow clients that have their IP addresses listed. If it's not listed, then it will do the same as blacklisted ip's.
• Can redirect clients whose IP Address is not permited to access the page, due to not being whitelisted, being blacklisted, or not entering the right credentials to login to the webpage.

Requirements

• Python 3.8 or later for the lastest patches and best performance. (Tested with Python 3.8, 3.9, and 3.10, 3.11).
• Windows 10 or later, Linux, or Mac OS (Tested on Windows and Linux).
• 'index.html' and any other files in the same directory as the webserver program or source files (the HTML document must be named as 'index.html', unless you specify a different filename in the configuration file).

Limitations

• If you're going to use an IPv6 address as the server's ip address, then you must specify a localhost ipv6 address like '::1', or use the global IPv6 address '::'.
• To generate SSL/HTTPS certificates and keys, you must generate it with OpenSSL on Linux. Or if you're on Windows, then use a third party version of OpenSSL or use MSYS to generate a HTTPS certificate and Key on Windows for the server.

Instructions

When starting the webserver, you can specify which ip address and port to bind to the server through arguments. By the 'server_config.json' file [recommended], which there you specify which localhost ip and port you want to use. Or if you don't specify anything through arguments or the configuration file, then the program will prompt you for the ip address and port number. If nothing is specified through any of those methods, then it will bind the server with '127.0.0.1' as its ip address, and bind with port 8080. Make sure you specify an address family of the IP address specified, if you use something like '127.0.0.1', then you must specify either 'INET' or 'IPV4' (not case senstive) as the address family. If you use '::1' then you must specify 'INET6' or 'IPV6' (again not case senstive) as the address family.

If you are going to host an HTTPS webstie with this program, then you must specify the HTTPS certificate and its key for it to be able to host your website with HTTPS. To generate the HTTPS certificate and key, use the Linux bash script provided to generate a certificate. If you're on Windows, then use MSys to generate a certificate for the server.

Once you start the server, it will be listing for any requests you send and handle them. The program will display the URL to enter into your browser, you can copy and paste it or set the program to automatically open up the webpage for you.

If you would like your webpage to be automatically up when the program is executed, then I would recommend using the 'server_config.json' file for specifying the server IP, port number, use your own ip address, or to have it automatically open up when the server starts up.

Configuration File

• "auto_open": set this to 'true' or false if you want your webpage to be automatically opened when the server starts up [Optional].
• "use_host_ip": Specify true or false if you want the program to bind the server's ip with your machine's ip address. [Optional, but only works with IPv4/INET addresses].
• "use_localhost": Set to 'true' or 'false if you want the program to bind the server with localhost.
• "listen_globally": Set to 'true' or 'false' if you want the program to listen on all of your device's interfaces (localhost, lan, etc.).
• "main_html_file": Specify the HTML file name, leave blank for it to default to 'index.html'.
• "webserver_ip": Specify a localhost ip or your own ip for the server to bind. [only required if 'use_client_address' is set to false. And only localhost IPv6/INET6 addresses work for IPv6].
• "webserver_port" : Specify a port number like 8080 or 8000 for the server to bind and listen for requests [Required, type senstive must be an int]
• "webserver_protocol" : Enter 'HTTP' or 'HTTPS' to se the type of protcol to use for the server [Required, not case senstive].
• "address_family" : Enter 'PV4' 'INET', 'IPV6', or 'INET6' (not case sentive) as the server's address family. If you use an IPv4 address as the server's ip address, then you must set 'INET' or 'IPV4' as the server's address family. Otherwise if you use an IPv6 address as the server's ip address, then you must specify 'INET6' or 'IPV6' as the server's address family.
• "path_to_cert" : Path of the HTTPS certificate file [required if HTTPS is used as the server's protocol].
• "path_to_key" : Path of the HTTPS certificate key file [required if HTTPS is used as the server's protocol].
• "require_authentication": Set to true or false if you want the webpage to prompt for a username and password, in order to access the webpage [Optional].
• "username": Put a username to use for authentication [Recuired if you're using authentication].
• "clear_password": Put a password to use for authentication [Required if you're using authentication].
• "authentication_message": Specify a message to show when being prompted for credentials.
• "blacklist_ips": Set to true or false, if you want to not allow certain IP Addresses to access the webpage.
• "blacklisted_ips": List of IP's to not permit access.
• "whitelist_ips": Set to true or false, if you want to limit access to the webpage.
• "whitelisted_ips": Lit of IP's that are allowed to access the webpage.
• "redirect_clients": Set to true or false, if you want blacklisted clients, non-whitelisted clients, or unauthenticated clients to be redirected instead of being redirected to a 403 page.
• "redirect_url": Specify any URL to redirect clients to [Recquired if you set 'redirect_clients' to true].
• "enable_logging": Set to true or false, if you want to have requests logged into a file [Recommended for debugging]
• "log_file": Specify the name of the log file [Required if you enabled logging, if the file does not exist then the program will automatically create the file].

Command-Line Arguments

• "--ip-address": Specify your IPv4 address, a localhost IPv4 address, or a IPv6 localhost address. [Required]
• "--port": Specify a port number for the server to listen to requests, ex. 8080, 8000, etc. [Required]
• "--protocol": Specify HTTP or HTTPS for the webserver protocol [Required].
• "--cert-file": Specify the path of a HTTPS certificate file [Required if using HTTPS]
• "--key-file": Specify the path of a HTTPS certificate key file [Required if using HTTPS]
• "--address-family": Specify the address family of the ip address being used [Required].
• "--auto-open": If specified, then it will open the webpage when the server starts up. [Optional]
• "--use-host-address": If specified, then it will bind the server with your machines IP address [Optional, only works with IPv4]

Note

If you are Linux, and you want the sever to listen on HTTP's or HTTPS's default port (HTTP 80, HTTPS 443) run the program with root/sudo privledges. As with programs such as nginx, httpd, etc. might be using the ports and it wouldn't allow the server to be binded with the ports in use. Otherwise if you're on Windows, you wouldn't need adminstrator privledges to run a webserver with HTTP's or HTTPS's default port. And when the server is running with HTTP or HTTPS, you won't need to specify the port the server is listening on (depending if you use HTTP's or HTTPS's default port).

(Possibly) Work in Progress

While this project is overall complete in feature development and stabilty. I personally think that there could potenonally be issues with logging. While I would typically spend a bunch of time stablizing my projects before they are considered complete, and get it uploaded to Github. I may not be so certain that some features are free of bugs. If you encounter any issues with logging or overall any other feature, then please open an 'issue' for me to fix. As I want my projects to be suitable for anyone to use for their own things. While I won't be always avaliable to fix any issues, due to being busy on somehting else.