Introduction

The Brazil framework consists of a small HTTP stack for dealing with browsers or other web servers, and a collection of modules that form the building blocks for web applications. Creating a web service involves configuring and connecting the appropriate modules together. This configuration is accomplished by defining the entries in a dictionary (also known as an associative array, or, in Brazil parlance, "server properties"), that maps a set of names to values. This mapping, once created, defines the functionality of the application.

For many applications, especially those that involve web-enabling existing applications, new modules will need to be constructed that can work with the existing Brazil modules to create custom functionality. The development of new modules is described in the developer's manual. A third manual, the programmer's guide describes how the core system may be augmented to meet the needs of specific application areas.

This guide concentrates on describing the modules that come pre-packaged with the Brazil distibution, and how to create "Properties" files that describe how the modules fit together to form a complete application. It pays special attention to the "template" modules, that allow suffisticated applications to be constructed using simple extensions to ordinary looking html pages.

The primary purpose of this manual is to help you create Brazil properties files, which is the key to building web applications. Some knowlege of HTML, and the way browsers and servers interact is assumed.

Module overview

Just like real building blocks, the Brazil blocks (modules) come in several different kinds, which may be The first type, known as content-handlers

Creating properties files