Lightweight scripts in the cloud

This is a Python app to be deployed on Heroku that will let you run Lua scripts from Github that run as if they were on Webscript. This effectively gives you a free version of Webscript.

The goal is to be fully compatible with Webscript, meaning you can expect the same environment as Webscript and even use both Webscript maintained and 3rd party modules.

There are plans to go beyond current Webscript functionality. Airscript will someday support different language runtimes. JavaScript is first on the list.

First you need a Github account and a Heroku account. Both are free! Sign up for Heroku. Sign up for Github.

Software wise, you need Git and the Heroku Toolbelt.

Clone this repo to your machine.

Airscript pulls script sources from public Github repos or Gists. Edit the Mountfile to point paths to any Gist or Github project URL. All files in the repo or Gist will be available under the mounted path.

<path>: <gist or repo url> 

Example:

/: https://gist.github.com/7c74508c98c245c94311 

Be sure to commit your edits.

From the project directory:

$ ./deploy [name] 

It will create a Heroku URL with your optional name as the subdomain. If you used the example mount, you can now go to:

http://[name].herokuapp.com/test?name=John 

Just edit your scripts from Github or clone them locally to edit. Pushing to Github will update the source used by the Airscript engine.

For now, read the Webscript Documentation for details on the Lua environment.

The only time you have to redeploy is if you update the engine code or change your Mountfile.

Here's what works now:

• Request/Response model
• json module
• base64 module

Those were just easy to implement from Python's standard library. More soon...

Although the idea seems inspired by Webscript, Airscript is actually an attempt to bring back a 4 year old project called Scriptlets. Scriptlets was a free service that let you write code in the browser, hit a Save, and get a URL that would run that code. It supported PHP, Python, Ruby, and JavaScript. It was created specifically for writing webhook handlers.

Perhaps ahead of its time, Scriptlets usage never grew enough for it to fully develop. Eventually it went defunct. Some years later, Webscript comes out as a potential savior. However, their "business model" holds their product back.

Airscript is intentionally riding on their environment to bootstrap an open and free alternative that may someday fulfill the original dream of Scriptlets.

Would love to have collaborators join to help with big plans for this project. Check out Issues for ideas on how you can help.

TBD, Copyright (c) 2013 Jeff Lindsay