Creating a REST api in C plus plus

This blog consists of the following parts:

1. Tool required for the setup

2. Steps involved in the setup

3. Points to remember

4. Creating a basic cutelyst application

1. Tools required for the setup : Following tools are required for the setup

• Cutelyst Framework - source - https://github.com/cutelyst/cutelyst
• CMake - for Windows x64 platform - https://cmake.org/download/
• Qt 5.6 or higher - https://www.qt.io/download (Qt 5.12.0 in my case)
• Visual Studio 2017 Community.
• Microsoft Visual C++ compiler (MSVC 2017 32bit in my case)

Note: I assume that Visual Studio, Qt and CMake are already set up on your computer.

2. Steps involved in the setup

• Download the cutelyst source from the GitHub link provided above and unzip it to the following location “C:\cutelyst-2.7.0”

• Create a folder named cutelyst_build in the same location “C:\cutelyst_build”

• Now open CMake-GUI.

Note: Open CMake-GUI with admin rights to avoid errors due to access permissions

• Provide source(C:\cutelyst-2.7.0) and build(C:\cutelyst_build) paths.??
• Now click on the Configure button and select MS Visual Studio 2017 as a generator and select “Use native compilers” and then click OK.
• At this, you will get some errors but don’t worry just look for the red values, update them and then again click on Configure button

Note: The possible errors at this point may be regarding the paths of  Qt5 and Cutelyst2Qt5. Just update the following entries in the CMake as mentioned below.

Qt5_DIR => “C:\Qt\5.12.0\msvc2017\lib\cmake\Qt5”

Cutelyst2Qt5_DIR => “C:\cutelyst_build\Cutelyst\Debug”

Create a folder named cutelyst in “C:\Program Files(x86)” and then click on Configure, you will see “Configuration done” in the output window in the CMake-GUI.

• Click on Generate button and you will see “Generating done” message in the CMake-GUI output window.
• Now open Qt 5.12.0 (MSVC 2017 - 32bit) command prompt with admin rights and navigate to your cutelyst build folder “C:\cutelyst_build”  and run the following command

        cmake -- build. --config Release

                 Once build is finished then run the following command

        cmake -- build. --target INSTALL --config Release

                 That’s it, cutelyst installation is done.

3. Points to remember

• Install all the required tools before starting the installation.
• Open all the tools with admin rights to avoid errors regarding access permissions.
• Source and build paths should not contain any spaces
• Make sure you select the appropriate Qt version and C++ compiler.

Qt 5.12.0 and MSVC 2017(32bit) in my case

• Same version(as of C++ compiler) of Visual Studio should be installed on your computer prior to installation

4. Creating a basic cutelyst application

• Before creating an application add the following path variable to your system settings “C:\Program Files (x86)\cutelyst\bin”
• In the MSVC command prompt navigate to your desired location(say C:\Cutelyst_Apps) and run the following command cutelyst2 --create-app Hello

A folder Hello will be created inside the Cutelyst_App folder.

• Navigate to “C:\Cutelyst_Apps\Hello\build” and run the following command

                  cmake --build . --config Debug

                  Now the libraries will be generated inside the following path

                  “C:\Cutelyst_Apps\Hello\build\src\Debug”

                  Note: If you can't find the build folder you can create it manually

• Navigate to “C:\Cutelyst_Apps\Hello” and run the following command

cutelyst2 -r --server --app-file .\build\src\Debug\Hello.dll

• Test the application by running the url “localhost:3000” in your web browser. You will see the message “Welcome to Cutelyst!” in your web browser.

That’s it, cutelyst app created successfully.