Personally, I like HTTP::Server::Simple, which also works (single threaded) under Win32. You can also look at my home-cooked HTTP Server in 100 lines, but HTTP::Server::Simple has a much cleaner interface for extending it.

Greetings jdtoronto,

In addition to the other fine modules and approaches other monks have pointed out, you may also want to look at Net::HTTPServer as a way to add HTTP functionality to your existing application. I posted about my experiences trying to wrap an existing CGI::Application web application here and here.

Net::HTTPServer doesn't do much on its own by way of cookies, headers, redirects, and other such things, but it does have a fairly good interface that lets you add whatever functionality you need. From your original post, it looks like you wouldn't have to do much.

For the XML processing, I would strongly recommend XML::Simple. It's powerful and easy to use. I doubt you'll need something more complex, but if you do, I've heard good things about XML::LibXML.

You already have IIS on Windows, no need to recreate that particular wheel, all you have to do is create a small CGI program that does the required processing.

/J\

But IIS is not going to be installed on user machines. I have thousands of copies of the product out there and I am limited to what I can install myself using our NSIS based installer or using another Perl programme.

jdtoronto

Oddly enough, IO::All may provide the server side relatively painlessly, as well. Its docs seem to talk about a one-line web server that does CGI, which I thought was an oddity, and here you may find it quite useful (I'd suggest some more whitespace, and, perhaps, a slightly more advanced usage, but the one-liner may get you started). Then use one of the myriad of XML modules to parse the XML - depending on what you're dealing with, XML::Simple may suffice, although XML::Twig has always been my favourite.