From: Joao Pedrosa <joaopedrosa@...>
Date: 2005-03-07T11:48:03+09:00
Subject: Re: WEBrick for a local application?

Hi,

On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 11:41:05 +0900, Jeremy Bear <jeremy.bear@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> I'm considering writing a dream journaling program for a small group
> of friends, and we're on different platforms.  I'm on Linux, one is on
> FreeBSD, and others are on WindowsXP.  Basically, I wanted to do
> something that would yield a nice cross-platform GUI.  I've looked at
> using Tk, but I know that on the Linux/BSD platforms, it's rather
> ugly.  I thought about making a Web based gui for the program, since I
> could use CSS and such to really make the interface look nice.
> 
> I've looked at the WEBrick docs and samples, and, it looks like it
> could yield a decent solution.  I've played around with it a little,
> and I realized that starting it up at all makes an open port to the
> outside world if you're online.  That isn't exactly what I wanted to
> do.
> 
> My main question, I guess, is this:  Is there any way that I can use
> WEBrick in a local setting only that will not open up a persons
> computer to the outside world?  I think that it could make a nice
> application base, but I don't want to compromise one's security while
> using it.
> 
> I really wanted to keep downloads for these people to be kept to a
> minimum, so I didn't really want to make them download a bunch of
> extra GUI libraries.  I also wanted something that would run fairly
> quick, and would be easy to use.  (for some reason I have had a hard
> time grasping Fox, although Tk was easy enough)
> 
> Am I barking up the wrong tree with this?

WEBrick rocks.

You can use :BindAddress => local_ip and it will be LAN accessible only. Like:

:BindAddress => 192.168.0.100, :Port => 2000

See its code, as I use Wee and its a bit different, like:
Wee::WEBrickAdaptor.register('/app' => app).start(:BindAddress =>
'192.168.0.100', :Port => 2000)

Cheers,
Joao