docsforyou

Small C++ HTTP service built with Boost.Beast + CMake.

The project exposes a minimal REST API to store and retrieve text documents on disk.

Why this project is useful

• Clean separation of concerns: http / services / repository
• Async HTTP server using Boost.Beast
• Interface-based persistence (DocumentRepository) with file implementation
• Easy local build with CMake and Make
• Dockerized runtime for reproducible runs

Project structure

src/
  http/        # Server, routing, request/response mapping, controllers
  services/    # Business logic (counter, document management)
  repository/  # Persistence abstraction and file implementation
  main.cpp     # Program entrypoint

Requirements

• Linux/macOS
• C++17 compiler
• CMake >= 3.15
• Boost (system, filesystem)
• nlohmann/json headers

On Ubuntu/Debian (example):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake libboost-all-dev nlohmann-json3-dev

Build and run (host)

make clean && make
./build/docsforyou 127.0.0.1 8080

API

Base URL:

http://127.0.0.1:8080

1) Health-like counters

• GET /count → HTML with request counter
• GET /time → HTML with current epoch time

Example:

curl -i http://127.0.0.1:8080/count
curl -i http://127.0.0.1:8080/time

2) Documents

• POST /doc creates a document
• GET /doc/{id} fetches one document
• DELETE /doc/{id} deletes one document

Create:

curl -i -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8080/doc \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"author":"alice","content":"hello world"}'

Expected response:

{"id":"0"}

Read:

curl -i http://127.0.0.1:8080/doc/0

Delete:

curl -i -X DELETE http://127.0.0.1:8080/doc/0

Docker

Build image:

make docker-build

Run container (maps host 8080 to container 8080):

make docker-run

This command mounts ./data from your host into /app in the container, so *.DFY files persist across restarts.

Stop container:

make docker-stop

Tail logs:

make docker-logs

Override defaults:

make docker-build IMAGE_NAME=docsforyou:v1
make docker-run IMAGE_NAME=docsforyou:v1 CONTAINER_NAME=docsforyou-dev PORT=9090
make docker-run DATA_DIR=$PWD/my-docs-data

Notes

• Documents are currently stored in the process working directory as *.DFY files.
• IDs are numeric and generated incrementally.
• On systems where Docker requires elevated permissions, add your user to the docker group or run Docker commands with sudo.

Suggested next improvements

• Add automated tests (service and routing layers)
• Add request validation and consistent JSON error bodies
• Add configurable data directory via env var or CLI
• Add CI (build + test) workflow