scriptform/README.md

# ScriptForm

![Status: Stable](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-stable-green.svg)
![Build Status](http://build.electricmonk.nl/job/scriptform/shield)
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![License: GPLv3](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-GPLv3-blue.svg)

A stand-alone webserver that automatically generates forms from JSON to serve
as frontends to scripts.

ScriptForm takes a JSON file which contains form definitions. It then
constructs web forms from this JSON and serves these to users over HTTP. The
user can select a form and fill it out. When the user submits the form, it is
validated and the associated script is called. Data entered in the form is
passed to the script through the environment.

Packages are available for:

* [Debian / Ubuntu](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/releases)
* [RedHat / Centos](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/releases)
* [Other operating systems](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/releases)

## Features

- Very rapidly construct forms with backends.
- Completely standalone HTTP server; only requires Python.
- Callbacks to any kind of script / program that supports environment
  variables.
- User authentication support through Basic HTAuth.
- Validates form values before calling scripts.
- Uploaded files are automatically saved to temporary files, which are passed
  on to the callback.
- Multiple forms in a single JSON definition file.
- Scripts can produce normal output, HTML output or stream their own HTTP
  response to the client. The last one lets you stream images or binaries to
  the browser.
- Run scripts as different users without requiring sudo.
- Audit log: All form submissions including entered values can be logged to a
  logfile for auditing.


## Use-cases

Scriptform is very flexible and as such serves many use-cases. Most of these
revolve around giving non-technical users a user friendly way to safely run
scripts on a server.

Here are some of the potential uses of Scriptform:

- Add / remove users from htpasswd files.
- Execute SQL snippets.
- View service status
- Upload data to be processed.
- Restart, enable and disable services.
- Trigger for batch processing.

## Example

The following example lets you add new users to a htpasswd file via ScriptForm.
It presents the user with a form to enter the user's details. When the form is
submitted, the `job_add_user.sh` script is called which adds the user to the
htpasswd file.


Form configuration file: `test_server.json`

    {
      "title": "Test server",
      "forms": [
        {
          "name": "add_user",
          "title": "Add user",
          "description": "Add a user to the htpasswd file",
          "submit_title": "Add user",
          "script": "job_add_user.sh",
          "fields": [
            {"name": "username", "title": "Username", "type": "string"},
            {"name": "password1", "title": "Password", "type": "password"},
            {"name": "password2", "title": "Repeat password", "type": "password"}
          ]
        }
      ]
    }

The script `job_add_user.sh`:

    #!/bin/sh

    if [ -z "$password1" ]; then
        echo "Empty password specified" >&2; exit 1
    fi
    if [ "$password1" != "$password2" ]; then
        echo "Passwords do not match" >&2; exit 1
    fi

    htpasswd -s -b .htpasswd "$username" "$password1" || exit $?

    echo "User created or password updated"

Set some rights and create the initial `htpasswd` file:

    $ chmod 755 job_add_user.sh
    $ touch .htpasswd

We can now start ScriptForm to start serving the form over HTTP. By default it
starts as a daemon, so we specify the `-f` option to start it in the foreground
instead. We also specify the port, even though 8081 is already the default.

    $ scriptform -f -p8081 ./test_server.json

The user is presented with the following form:

![](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fboender/scriptform/master/doc/screenshots/form.png)

When submitting the form, the results are displayed.

![](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fboender/scriptform/master/doc/screenshots/result.png)

For more examples, see the [examples directory](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/tree/master/examples)

For more screenshots, see the [screenshots Wiki page](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/wiki/Screenshots)

## Installation

### Requirements

ScriptForm requires:

* Python 2.6+

No other libraries are required. Python v2.6+ is generally available by default
on almost every major linux distribution. For other platforms Python is almost
certainly available.

### Installation

Get the package for your operating system from the [Github releases page](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/releases). 

For **Debian / Ubuntu** systems:

    sudo dpkg -i scriptform*.deb

For **Redhat / Centos** systems:

    sudo yum install scriptform*.rpm

For **Other** systems:

    tar -vxzf scriptform*.tar.gz
    cd scriptform*
    sudo make install

### Configuration

Scriptform provides init scripts to automatically start Scriptform at boot
time.  These are not installed by default. You can find init scripts for
Debian / Ubuntu at `/usr/share/doc/scriptform/scriptform.init.d_debian` and
for Redhat / Centos at `/usr/share/doc/scriptform/scriptform.init.d_debian`. 

**NOTE**: If you use an init script, Scriptform will run as user `root`, which
will cause Scriptform to automatically drop privileges to user `nobody` and
group `nobody` when executing shell scripts. This may cause "permission
denied" problems! See the "Execution security policy" chapter in the User
Manual for more information.

To install the init script:

For **Debian / Ubuntu** systems:

    sudo cp /usr/share/doc/scriptform/scriptform.init.d_debian /etc/init.d/scriptform
    sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/scriptform
    sudo update-rc.d scriptform defaults

Then edit `/etc/init.d/scriptform` and change the `FORM_CONFIG` setting to
point at the form configuration JSON file you'd like to use.

For **RedHat / Centos** systems:

    sudo cp /usr/share/doc/scriptform/scriptform.init.d_redhat /etc/init.d/scriptform
    sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/scriptform
    sudo chkconfig --add scriptform
    sudo chkconfig scriptform on

Then edit `/etc/init.d/scriptform` and change the `FORM_CONFIG` setting to
point at the form configuration JSON file you'd like to use.

There's also a **Systemd** unit file, which should work on most systems that
run on systemd:

    sudo cp /usr/share/doc/scriptform/scriptform.service /etc/systemd/system/

Then edit `/etc/systemd/system/scriptform.service` and make change the
`FORM_CONFIG` environment variable to point at the form configuration JSON
file you'd like to use.




## Usage

Usage:

	Usage: /usr/bin/scriptform [option] (--start|--stop) <form_definition.json>
		   /usr/bin/scriptform --generate-pw

	Options:
	  --version             show program's version number and exit
	  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
	  -g, --generate-pw     Generate password
	  -p PORT, --port=PORT  Port to listen on (default=8081)
	  -f, --foreground      Run in foreground (debugging)
	  -r, --reload          Reload form config on every request (DEV)
	  --pid-file=PID_FILE   Pid file
	  --log-file=LOG_FILE   Log file
	  --start               Start daemon
	  --stop                Stop daemon


ScriptForm can run both in daemon mode or in the foreground. In daemon mode, we
can control ScriptForm with the `--start` and `--stop` options. By default it
runs on port 8081, which we can change with the `-p` option.

    $ scriptform -p8081 ./test_server.json

This puts ScriptForm in the background as a daemon. It creates a PID file and a
log file.

    $ tail scriptform.log
    2015-04-08 07:57:27,160:DAEMON:INFO:Starting
    2015-04-08 07:57:27,161:DAEMON:INFO:PID = 5614
    2015-04-08 07:57:27,162:SCRIPTFORM:INFO:Listening on 0.0.0.0:8081

In order to stop the daemon:

    $ scriptform --stop

We can control the location of the PID file and log file with the `--pid-file`
and `--log-file` options. If we don't specify these, ScriptForm will create
them in the local directory.

To run ScriptForm in the foreground, specify the `-f` option. 

If you're going to use built-in basic authentication, you can generate a
password for your user with the `--generate-pw` option:

    $ scriptform --generate-pw
    Password: 
    Repeat password: 
    2c26b46b68ffc68ff99b453c1d30413413422d706483bfa0f98a5e886266e7ae

You can paste the generated password into the password field. You can also use
an Apache (or other webserver) frontend for authentication. For more
information, see the User Manual.

## Documentation

The [User Manual](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/blob/master/doc/MANUAL.md) is the main source for all your documentation
needs:

* Read the [tutorial](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/blob/master/doc/MANUAL.md#tutorial) to quickly get aquinted with
  Scriptform.
* Read about [form configurations](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/blob/master/doc/MANUAL.md#form_config) to learn all the
  configuration options for Scriptform and your forms.
* The [field types](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/blob/master/doc/doc/MANUAL.md#field_types) chapter lists all the possible
  fields and which options they take.

## Security

ScriptForm is only as secure as you write your scripts. Although form values
are validated before calling scripts, many possible security problems should be
taken into consideration. As such, you should *never* expose ScriptForm to the
public internet. Its intended end users should be people you trust at least to
a certain degree.

## License

ScriptForm is released under the following license:

GPLv3 license.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.