CGI Programming with Perl: Creating Dynamic Web Pages

Programming on the Web today can involve any of several technologies, but the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) has held its ground as the most mature method--and one of the most powerful ones--of providing dynamic web content. CGI is a generic interface for calling external programs to crunch numbers, query databases, generate customized graphics, or perform any other server-side task. There was a time when CGI was the only game in town for server-side programming; today, although we have ASP, PHP, Java servlets, and ColdFusion (among others), CGI continues to be the most ubiquitous server-side.;CGI Programming with Perl, 2nd Edition; SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O'Reilly; A Note Regarding Supplemental Files; Preface; What's in the Book; What You Are Expected to Know Before Reading; Overview of the Book; Conventions in This Book; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Acknowledgments from the First Edition; 1. Getting Started; History; How CGI Is Used Today; Introduction to CGI; Sample CGI; Invoking CGI Scripts; Alternative Technologies; Why Perl?; Alternatives to CGI; Web Server Configuration; Configuring CGI Scripts; Configuring by directory; Configuring by extension. CGI Programming with Perl, 2nd Edition SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O'Reilly A Note Regarding Supplemental Files Preface What's in the Book What You Are Expected to Know Before Reading Overview of the Book Conventions in This Book How to Contact Us Acknowledgments Acknowledgments from the First Edition 1. Getting Started History How CGI Is Used Today Introduction to CGI Sample CGI Invoking CGI Scripts Alternative Technologies Why Perl? Alternatives to CGI Web Server Configuration Configuring CGI Scripts Configuring by directory Configuring by extension. 2. The Hypertext Transport ProtocolURLs Elements of a URL Absolute and Relative URLs URL Encoding HTTP The Request and Response Cycle HTTP Headers HTTP 1.1 and HTTP 1.0 Browser Requests The Request Line PUT and DELETE GET HEAD POST Request Header Field Lines Host Content-Length Content-Type Authorization User-Agent Accept Referer Cookies Server Responses The Status Line Server Headers Content-Base Content-Length Content-Type Date ETag Last-Modified Location Server Set-Cookie WWW-Authenticate Proxies Identifying Clients Caching Content Negotiation. Media TypeInternationalization Encoding Summary 3. The Common Gateway Interface The CGI Environment File Handles STDIN STDOUT STDERR Environment Variables CGI Environment Variables Examining Environment Variables CGI Output Partial Headers Outputting documents Forwarding to another URL Specifying status codes Complete (Non-Parsed) Headers Examples Check the Client Browser User Authentication and Identification Restricting Image Hijacking 4. Forms and CGI Sending Data to the Server Form Tags Quick Reference to Form Tags The Tag The Tag Text fields Password fields. Hidden fieldsCheckboxes Radio buttons Submit buttons Reset buttons Image buttons Plain buttons The Tag The tag The Tag Decoding Form Input 5. CGI.pm Overview Denial of Service Attacks The Kitchen Sink Standard and Object-Oriented Syntax Handling Input with CGI.pm Environment Information Accept http https query_string self_url url virtual_host Accessing Parameters Modifying parameters POST and the query string Index queries Supporting image buttons as submit buttons Exporting Parameters to a Namespace File Uploads with CGI.pm Generating Output with CGI.pm. Controlling HTTP Headers with CGI.pmMedia type Status Caching Specifying an alternative target Redirection Other headers Starting and Ending Documents start_html end_html Standard HTML Elements Form Elements Alternatives for Generating Output Lots of print Statements Here Documents Handling Errors Dying Gracefully Trapping die CGI::Carp Error Subroutines Custom Module 6. HTML Templates Reasons for Using Templates Rolling Your Own Server Side Includes Configuration Format Environment Variables Tailoring SSI Output Including Boilerplates Executing CGI Programs. Programming on the Web today can involve any of several technologies, but the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) has held its ground as the most mature method--and one of the most powerful ones--of providing dynamic web content. CGI is a generic interface for calling external programs to crunch numbers, query databases, generate customized graphics, or perform any other server-side task. There was a time when CGI was the only game in town for server-side programming; today, although we have ASP, PHP, Java servlets, and ColdFusion (among others), CGI continues to be the most ubiquitous server-side technology on the Web. CGI programs can be written in any programming language, but Perl is by far the most popular language for CGI. Initially developed over a decade ago for text processing, Perl has evolved into a powerful object-oriented language, while retaining its simplicity of use. CGI programmers appreciate Perl's text manipulation features and its CGI.pm module, which gives a well-integrated object-oriented interface to practically all CGI-related tasks. While other languages might be more elegant or more efficient, Perl is still considered the primary language for CGI. CGI Programming with Perl, Second Edition, offers a comprehensive explanation of using CGI to serve dynamic web content. Based on the best-selling CGI Programming on the World Wide Web, this edition has been completely rewritten to demonstrate current techniques available with the CGI.pm module and the latest versions of Perl. The book starts at the beginning, by explaining how CGI works, and then moves swiftly into the subtle details of developing CGI programs. Topics include: Incorporating JavaScript for form validation Controlling browser caching Making CGI scripts secure in Perl Working with databases Creating simple search engines Maintaining state between multiple sessions Generating graphics dynamically Improving performance of your CGI scripts "CGI Programming with Perl shows how to use CGI to deliver dynamic content on your web site. Based on the best-selling CGI Programming on the World Wide Web, this edition has been completely rewritten to demonstrate current techniques available with the CGI.pm module and the latest versions of Perl. The book starts by explaining how CGI and the underlying HTTP protocol work, and then moves quickly into the important details of developing CGI programs." "CGI Programming with Perl is a starting point for anyone who wants to program in CGI and already knows some Perl. With its emphasis on current techniques and technologies, this is the next generation book on CGI."--Jacket Provides an explanation of CGI for those who want to provide their own Web servers. The text features Perl 5 techniques and shows how to use two popular Perl modules, CGI.pm and CGI_lite. It also covers speed-up techniques, such as FastCGI and mod_perl, and material on security.