Embedded HTTP Client Overview
Allegro’s RomWebClient toolkits (Standard, Advanced and Secure) allow your engineering team to leverage proven Web technology in your networked embedded designs. The RomWebClient suite of products offer the ability to build embedded devices that send and receive objects to and from any Web server using HTTP with the option of SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 security. By utilizing RomWebClient technology your embedded device can download configuration files, retrieve software updates, retrieve “print-by-reference” documents or send status notifications to a remote sever.
RomWebClient Standard
The RomWebClient Standard toolkit enables your embedded device to fully support HTTP 1.0/1.1 for sending and receiving HTTP objects in any format with any Web server. MIME definitions for all standard MIME object types are provided in addition to allowing support for non-standard MIME types. HTTP objects can be sent or received from memory or an optional file system. Both HTTP direct requests and proxy server requests are supported. For authentication, HTTP Basic and Digest methods are provided and are compliant with RFC 2617. Delivered as ANSI-C source code the toolkit is built upon a highly portable and field proven abstraction layer enabling it to work with any OS or TCP/IP stack.
RomWebClient Advanced
The RomWebClient Advanced toolkit builds upon the functionality of the Basic toolkit by adding built-in caching support, pipelined request support, proxy authentication support, large object data streaming support and HTTP cookies support.
RomWebClient Secure
The RomWebClient Secure toolkit adds support for SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 encryption protocols to RomWebClient Standard and Advanced. With the included cryptography libraries and certificate services your engineering team can easily build embedded devices that can participate in secure communications with any secure Web server.
Fully Integrated with RomXML
The RomWebClient toolkits include support for integrated retrieval and transmission of XML objects when used in conjunction with the RomXML toolkit. This allows your design team to create devices that initiate XML-based request/response protocols such as the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) making them easier to integrate with enterprise information systems.
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Small code footprint |
More resources available for application features |
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ANSI C Source Code Distribution |
Broad processor architecture support, eases porting and support |
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Processor, RTOS and TCP/IP stack agnostic |
Allegro’s products will work with new or existing hardware and software designs |
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Interface files for leading RTOS vendors provided |
Minimizes porting effort, increase time to market |
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Shipping in millions of products worldwide |
Field proven reliability |
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GPL Free |
No licensing or development issues related with GPL |
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Direct and Proxy server request support along with proxy authentication |
Ability to create embedded designs that directly access the Internet or interface through a proxy |
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RFC 1945 and 2616 compliant |
Ability to interoperate with HTTP 1.0 and HTTP 1.1 compliant servers on the Internet |
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Support for Basic and Digest authentication (RFC 2617) |
Your embedded designs can support established protocols for the exchange of username and passwords for authentication |
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Support for object caching, large object streaming and pipelined request |
Efficient transfer of payload data from an Web server |
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Support for HTTP cookies |
Ability to support stateful communications |
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Optional SSL/TLS security |
Create embedded devices with a secured communications path |
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Optional OCSP and SCEP certificate update capability |
Remotely manage certificates on your embedded device |
Supported RFCs
- RFC 1945 – Hypertext Transfer Protocol — HTTP/1.0
- RFC 2616 – Hypertext Transfer Protocol — HTTP/1.1
- RFC 2617 – HTTP Authentication: Basic and Digest Access Authentication
System Requirements
- Processor Architecture – Agnostic to any 16-bit, 32-bit or 64-bit processor
- Operating System(OS) – Agnostic to OS vendor and will function without an OS if needed
- TCP/IP Stack – Agnostic
- Filesystem – Agnostic to vendor implementation and will function without a filesystem if needed
- Compiler – ANSI C
RomWebClient Options
| Standard | Advanced | Secure | |
| Full source code |
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| ANSI-C |
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| Small RAM/ROM Footprint |
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| Hardware and software abstraction layer |
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| Ability to run without RTOS |
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| Sample RTOS integration files |
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| Full electronic documentation |
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| GPL Free |
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| HTTP 1.0 and HTTP 1.1 protocol support |
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| GET, POST,PUT,HEAD,OPTIONS and TRACE methods |
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| Basic and Digest Authentication |
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| Memory only or file system model |
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| Proxy server support |
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| Optional header control |
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| URL decode support |
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| Persisitent connection support |
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| Integrated with RomXML |
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| HTTP Cookies support |
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| Object caching support |
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| Pipelined object support |
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| Proxy authentication |
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| Large object data streaming support |
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| SSL 3.0 support |
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| TLS 1.2 support |
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| Default certificate providing compatability with standard secure servers |
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| Encryption libraries compatable with standard secure servers |
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| Optional OCSP and SCEP certificate update capability with RomCert |
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