Teach yourself CGI Programming with Perl in a Week

Contents......Page 2
Intro......Page 3
1 Intro to CGI & its Environment......Page 4
Common Gateway Interface (CGI)......Page 5
HTML, HTTP & your CGI Program......Page 7
Directories on Server......Page 11
File Privileges, Permissions & Protection......Page 12
WWW Servers......Page 15
CGI Programming Paradigm......Page 16
Most common CGI Bugs......Page 18
Q&A......Page 21
2 Server & Browser Communication......Page 23
Requesting Web Page with Browser......Page 26
Internet Connection......Page 28
HTTP Headers......Page 29
Changing Returned Web Page based on the User-Agent Header......Page 38
Q&A......Page 44
3 Server Side Include Commands......Page 46
How Server Side Includes work......Page 47
Adding Last Modification Date to Page automatically......Page 50
Full Syntax of SSI Commands......Page 51
SSI config Command......Page 53
Include Command......Page 55
flastmod Command......Page 57
Echo Command......Page 59
Summary......Page 63
Q&A......Page 64
4 Forms to gather & send Data......Page 66
HTML Form Tags......Page 67
HTML Form Method Attribute......Page 68
Generating 1st Web Page On-the-Fly......Page 69
HTML Input Tag......Page 74
Text-Entry Form - fast & professional......Page 76
NPH-CGI Scripts......Page 78
Seeing what happens to the Data entered on the Form......Page 80
URI Encoding......Page 82
Summary......Page 84
Q&A......Page 85
5 Decoding the Data sent to CGI Program......Page 87
Post Method......Page 88
Radio Buttons......Page 89
Reading & Decoding Data in CGI......Page 92
Pull-Down Menus......Page 104
Summary......Page 111
Q&A......Page 112
6 Use Environment Variables......Page 114
Environment Variables......Page 115
Printing Environment Variables......Page 118
Sending Environment Variables to E-Mail Address......Page 120
2 Types of Environment Variables......Page 127
Who is calling at Web Page......Page 130
Using the Cookie......Page 133
Q&A......Page 136
Forms, Headers & Status Codes......Page 138
Registering Customer......Page 143
Setting up Password Protection......Page 149
Multiple Forms......Page 152
Summary......Page 158
Q&A......Page 159
8 Using existing CGI Libraries......Page 161
cgi-lib.pl Library......Page 162
CGI.pm for Web Forms......Page 164
CGI Library for C Programmers - cgic......Page 178
Q&A......Page 190
Defining Image Map......Page 193
Sending X,Y Coordinates of Mouse Click to the Server......Page 195
Creating Link to Image Map Program......Page 198
Using the imagemap.c Program......Page 199
Using the Map File......Page 201
Using Client-Side Image Maps......Page 208
Q&A......Page 210
10 Keeping Track of Web Page Visitors......Page 213
Using Existing Access Log File......Page 214
Using page-stats.pl to build Log Statistics......Page 216
Getting Access Counts for entire Server from wusage 3.2......Page 219
DBM Files......Page 223
Excluding Unwanted Domains from the Counts......Page 227
Turning the Counter into Inline Image......Page 228
Using gd 1.2 Library to produce Images On-the-Fly......Page 238
Q&A......Page 249
Looking at existing Mail Programs......Page 252
Using existing CGI E-Mail Programs......Page 256
Building own E-Mail Tool......Page 259
Implementing E-Mail Security......Page 266
Defining Regular Expression......Page 267
Q&A......Page 269
12 Guarding the Server against Unwanted Guests......Page 271
Protecting CGI Program from User Input......Page 272
Protecting Directories with Access-Control Files......Page 275
Setting up Password Protection......Page 282
Using Authorization Directives......Page 284
Examining Security Odds & Ends......Page 285
Cleaning up Cookies' Crumb Files......Page 288
Q&A......Page 289
13 Debugging CGI Programs......Page 291
Examining the Debugging Process......Page 292
Viewing HTML Source of Output......Page 297
Viewing CGI Program's Environment......Page 299
Debugging at the Command Line......Page 301
Reading the Server Error Log......Page 304
Debugging with the Print Command......Page 305
Looking at Useful Code for Debugging......Page 307
Final Word about Debugging......Page 309
Q&A......Page 310
Making Browser-sensitive Pages......Page 312
Simplifying Perl Code......Page 313
Examining Python......Page 315
Examining Java......Page 318
Internet Sites for CGI Programmers......Page 322
Summary......Page 325
MIME Types & File Extensions......Page 326
HTML Forms......Page 329
Status Codes & Reason Phrases......Page 341
NCSA imagemap.c......Page 345