provide cgi like actions

[tripodsan]

as discussed during the 4/2018 hackathon, we should produce an ability to create cgi-like actions.

• they will be served from in htdocs/cgi-bin
• they contain a main function that has the same signature as a pipeline function
• they are similar to the pure actions (Pure-JS actions are not wrapped  #334) but are not bound to a resource but have a url.

for example:

htdocs/cgi-bin/login.js

would be invoked with:

https://demo.project-helix.io/cgi-bin/login.js

/cc @davidnuescheler

[trieloff]

https://cq-dev.slack.com/archives/C9KD0TT6G/p1557392651377800

iven that the action and package name for src/html.htl is trieloff/2c5fbf40237634b75ba3ed821172dfc53b27a091/html, what should be action and package name for cgi-bin/html.js?

I'm seeing following options:

1. trieloff/2c5fbf40237634b75ba3ed821172dfc53b27a091/html (i.e. allow conflicts)
2. trieloff/2c5fbf40237634b75ba3ed821172dfc53b27a091/cgi-bin-html (inject prefix and hope to avoid conflicts)
3. trieloff/2c5fbf40237634b75ba3ed821172dfc53b27a091-cgi-bin/html (create a new package to really avoid conflicts)

[stefan-guggisberg]

2. or 3., with a soft pref for 2.

[rofe]

2

[trieloff]

Too late, 2 is already implemented.

[trieloff]

Use case: https://team.project-helix.io has a form that is currently an embedded google sheets iframe. With cgi-bin actions we can replace it with a proper contact form.

[tripodsan]

things to consider:

• cgi-bin needs special treatment in fastly, to allow POSTs (also see How to handle client POST requests helix-pipeline#251)
• if normal pipeline handles it, there will be a problem with POSTs as well.
• since the cgi-bin is not bound to a resource, it is quetionable if it should be handled by helix-pipeline... maybe for starters, we just treat them as raw openwhisk actions instead?

[tripodsan]

Too late, 2 is already implemented.

where?

[trieloff]

The build/deploy part of the implementation is in #851

cgi-bin needs special treatment in fastly, to allow POSTs (also see adobe/helix-pipeline#251)

Yes, there should be a new X-Request-Type = "CGI" to handle this.

if normal pipeline handles it, there will be a problem with POSTs as well.

No. The normal pipeline should remain GET only.

since the cgi-bin is not bound to a resource, it is quetionable if it should be handled by helix-pipeline... maybe for starters, we just treat them as raw openwhisk actions instead?

Yes, that was my plan. The helix-pipeline as it stands would only get in the way, so these are raw OW actions.