Introduction

In this chapter, we will look at Cowboy and Phoenix.

Cowboy is written in Erlang and its author, Loïc Hoguin, defines it as "a small, fast, and modular HTTP server."

Cowboy provides an HTTP 1.0/1.1 stack and supports websockets, SPDY, and REST. It is currently used in Phoenix, which is an Elixir web framework.

Phoenix was a project started by Chris McCord but currently has several contributors and is an excellent option to implement web applications. Its aim is to provide a way to build full-featured, fault tolerant applications with real-time functionalities.

We will begin by showing you how to use Cowboy. Even though it is written in Erlang, its use with Elixir is possible and is proof of the excellent interoperability between Elixir and Erlang.

Later on, we will use Phoenix to create a simple web application.