CGI Programming 101: Programming Perl for the World Wide Web, Second Edition [Paperback]

Jacqueline Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

If you build web pages you may eventually want to add a guestbook, order form, page counter, or other interactive elements to your website. CGI Programming 101 explains how to do this in simple, easy-to-understand terms. The book shows you how to write useful, real-world web programs, starting with simple guestbook forms and building up to more advanced applications.

You'll learn:

* The Basics: where to write your CGI programs; how to upload them and set file permissions; how to run them, and how to debug them when things go wrong

* How to decode form data and save it to a file or e-mail it to yourself

* How to create, read, write, and search data files

* How to use Server-Side Includes to add dynamic content to your web site, plus a complete list of Apache SSI directives

* How to use random numbers for displaying banner ads and random images

* How to redirect visitors to another site

* How to extend your programs by using modules

* How to create a MySQL database, and write programs that interact with databases using the DBI module

* How to build an online shopping cart program

* How to e-mail attachments using a CGI program

* How to write secure programs, and protect your programs against hackers and spammers

* How to password-protect an area of your website

...and more.

The second edition has been substantially revised, with 100 pages of new material. It teaches good programming practices from the beginning, including use of the industry-standard CGI.pm Perl module. You'll learn how to protect your form-to-mail programs from being hijacked by spammers, how to build a cookie-based shopping cart, and how to develop a password-protected website. Quick-reference pages and an improved index help you find information easily.

There are also several online tutorials to help you set up your own web server and write CGI programs on any computer system - including Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

CGI Programming 101: Programming Perl for the World Wide Web is a concise presentation of the key elements of Perl CGI, which makes it perfect for programmers who are under the gun. If you need to get up to speed on text strings, for example, you can read that chapter and be a pro within about 10 minutes.

Form processing is addressed early on, followed by searching and sorting techniques, illustrations of how to use server-side includes (SSI), and other critical issues. There's also a chapter on using MySQL--an open-source SQL database. In general, if you want to get the most out of this book, you'll be better off having some programming experience, be it in BASIC or C++.

The only element missing from this introductory course is an appendix containing Perl's reserved characters, operators, and functions; instead, this material is presented throughout the book. But CGI Programming 101 is still one of the most efficient ways to get up to speed with Perl CGI. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Perl variables, CGI environment variables, form processing, data file I/O, searching/sorting, server-side includes (SSI), random number generation, strings, date and time manipulation, HTTP cookies, e-mail processing, securing scripts, Perl modules, database programming, and custom Perl modules.

About the Author

Jackie Hamilton has been programming Perl since the "early" days of the web (since 1992). She's tackled CGI projects for many companies, including Texas Metronet, Tenagra, Cybersight, GTE, EDS, and Texas Instruments, to name a few. She's currently the webmaster for Steve Jackson Games.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: CGI101.com; 2 edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966942612
• ISBN-13: 978-0966942613
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #930,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CGI Programming 101 - Reader Review, March 21, 2005

By 

Alex Clark (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CGI Programming 101: Programming Perl for the World Wide Web, Second Edition (Paperback)

CGI Programming 101 - Perl for the World Wide Web (Second Edition)
by Jacqueline Hamilton
Publisher: CGI101.com
Publication date: 2004
Website: www.cgi101.com

An excellent introduction to Perl programming, good for beginners but also very useful to more experienced programmers who want a quick understanding of Perl and it's capabilities on the web.

Chapters include: Perl variables (including summary list of native variable functions), online forms, file access for read/write operations, server-side includes (SSI), string and arithmetic operators, searching and sorting data, pattern matching (using an email validation expression as an example), database programming (examples given using MySQL), CGI security issues (keeping your scripts secure), and how to password-protect a specific location on your site to create a secure area. For people accessing their scripts on a Unix server, a short appendix shows some common Unix shell commands, which will help you find your way around and set the relevant file permissions etc.

Overall a very well written and nicely designed book, which includes lots of practical examples you can copy and adapt to your own needs.

There is also an excellent accompanying website at www.cgi101.com/book, which has the first six chapters of the book and loads of code examples online for free, and the first six chapters are also downloadable in pdf format for free. I actually wrote my first Perl script from the first six chapters while I was waiting for the book to arrive, which kept me entertained and is a great way to test-drive the book.

One thing to remember as you play, however, is that the file access parameters and permissions required to use shared resources on your server may be different from the examples given in the book. This means the path to your sendmail program, for example, may be different. Some examples may work on one server, but not on another. You will have to check the specific requirements with your server administrator or ISP. If you are familiar with writing web scripts you will already know this, but if you are new to web scripting this is one thing to bear in mind.

I highly recommend this book and accompanying website to anybody interested in learning Perl. I know I will certainly get the max out of my copy, as it has already proven itself. Thank you Jacqui!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Project Oriented Approach, November 5, 2006

By 

David Veuve (Palo Alto, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CGI Programming 101: Programming Perl for the World Wide Web, Second Edition (Paperback)

One of the nicest (and at times, accursed) aspects of perl is that with a small amount of knowledge, you can do anything. If you have an informal background in programming (so that you have the analytical mindset), you can spend a weekend reading about Perl, then go build anything your heart desires. It'll take more time and be messier than the accomplished programmer's works, but you can do it.

That is exactly what I did with this book. I read the first edition, some six, maybe seven years ago, and then went on to build whatever I wanted. A year or so after reading it, I made a content management system replete with a gui interface that my employers could use. This book was the inspiration for years of Perl code creation, and employment.

Now, you won't learn as much as you would with any of the standard Perl books (such as Programming Perl, by the O'Reilly publishing world), as it's a project based approach to Perl learning. You aren't inundated with theoretics and syntax that you could then apply; instead, you receive the fundamentals, with some useful code snippets that you can put into your own code, and go forth to create.

In short, it is a delightful read, and I highly recommend it to any user who prefers a practical approach to learning, versus a theoretical one. If your aim is to go directly into a Perl programming job, then you may want to look elsewhere, but if you want to be able to build web applications, this is a quick easy read that will provide you with the tools to create all that you might want.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, December 20, 2006

By 

J. Lezniak (Wichita, Kansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CGI Programming 101: Programming Perl for the World Wide Web, Second Edition (Paperback)

This book is extremely helpful for anyone completely new or clueless on the subject of cgi programming. This was my first book on the subject of cgi's (w/ perl) and honestly, it was the best primer in regular expressions in perl. Let me stress its name is suggestive of the content... that is CGI 101 is for beginners. That was a good thing in my case since I was completely clueless when it came to dynamic web programming. It was my first purchase on the subject and I still consider it the most helpful.

I highly suggest this book for anyone looking for an entry point on the subject of CGI programming.