# ScriptForm ![Status: Stable](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-stable-green.svg) ![Build Status](http://build.electricmonk.nl/job/scriptform/shield) ![Activity: Active development](https://img.shields.io/badge/activity-active%20development-green.svg) ![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 The binary release of Scriptform requires: * Glibc v2.2.5+ The python release of Scriptform requires: * Python 3.6+ No other libraries are required. ### Installation Get the package for your operating system from the [Github releases page](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/releases). The **binary release** should work on most modern systems: Get the latest `*-bin64.tar.gz` release from the [releases page](https://github.com/fboender/scriptform/releases). Unpack it and copy it to some location in your `PATH`: tar -vxzf scriptform-*-bin64.tar.gz sudo cp scriptform-*-bin64/scriptform /usr/local/bin 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) /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 .