CGI Programming on the World Wide Web (Nutshell Handbooks) [Paperback]

Shishir Gundavaram (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 8, 1996 | ISBN-10: 1565921682 | ISBN-13: 978-1565921689 | Edition: 1

The World Wide Web is more than a place to put up clever documents and pretty pictures. With a little study and practice, you can offer interactive queries and serve instant information from databases, worked up into colorful graphics. That is what the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) offers.

This book offers a comprehensive explanation of CGI and related techniques for people who hold on to the dream of providing their own information servers on the Web.

Good scripting is not limited to a knowledge of CGI -- you need to know something about other programming tools that organize data and make the output look attractive. Gundavaram starts at the beginning, explaining the value of CGI and how it works, and takes you swiftly into the subtle details of programming. The book offers a comprehensive look at the job of providing information dynamically on the Web.

For most of the examples, this book uses the most common platform (UNIX) and the most popular language (Perl) used for CGI programming today. However, it also introduces the essentials of making CGI work with other platforms and languages. The actual programming techniques are not too different from one platform and language to another; the lessons from this book can be applied to any tools you choose.

Topics include:

• Basic Perl techniques for parsing and output
• Embedding Server Side Includes (SSI)
• Graphics and simple animation
• Forms and magic cookies
• Gateways and SQL processing
• Internet communications
• Examples of games, imagemap manipulation, and other advanced applications

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

O'Reilly has done it again! This is my favorite book yet on writing CGI scripts with Perl (5.0). The extensive use of real world applications you can try while learning, and the great examples of how to have CGI interact with databases are especially useful. I suspect I shall order several copies for some of our staff who are new to CGI. Although the book has a UNIX bias, it has much to offer scripters on all platforms.

Note that many competitors cram a CD-ROM into their books to give greater "shelf appeal". Don't be fooled. O'Reilly continues its economically and ecologically sensible approach of pointing you to their FTP site to obtain the example code used in the book. (Thanks, Tim!) Highly Recommended.

From the Publisher

The World Wide Web is more than a place to put up clever documents and pretty pictures. With a little study and practice, you can offer interactive queries and serve instant information from databases, worked up into colorful graphics. That is what the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) offers. This book offers a comprehensive explanation of CGI and related techniques for people who hold on to the dream of providing their own information servers on the Web. Good scripting is not limited to a knowledge of CGI -- you need to know something about other programming tools that organize data and make the output look attractive. Gundavaram starts at the beginning, explaining the value of CGI and how it works, and takes you swiftly into the subtle details of programming. The book offers a comprehensive look at the job of providing information dynamically on the Web. For most of the examples, this book uses the most common platform (UNIX) and the most popular language (Perl) used for CGI programming today. However, it also introduces the essentials of making CGI work with other platforms and languages. The actual programming techniques are not too different from one platform and language to another; the lessons from this book can be applied to any tools you choose. Topics include: Basic Perl techniques for parsing and output Embedding Server Side Includes (SSI) Graphics and simple animation Forms and magic cookies Gateways and SQL processing Internet communications Examples of games, imagemap manipulation, and other advanced applications

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (March 8, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565921682
• ISBN-13: 978-1565921689
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,026,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book! I'd recommend it to anyone!, September 23, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CGI Programming on the World Wide Web (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book. I'd recommend it to anyone who is getting started in CGI programming. It will not teach you Perl; for that I used O'Reilly's "Programming perl" while I read through this book's examples. For CGI programming, however, this book does its job very well.I noticed another review that said that code in this book didn't work. I've actually used code from this book in a half-dozen sites now, and it worked fine. More importantly, the code was well-enough explained that I've modified it over and over again to do what I needed.I still pull this book out every so often, and a few of my friends come by my house and read it. It's a very useful tool for anyone who wants to get started with CGI programming.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction to CGI, November 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: CGI Programming on the World Wide Web (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

If you have a basic understanding of Perl and HTML, this book helps youlearn CGI. The book also introduced me to postscript and gd, which havebeen quite valuable for a lot of applicatioins. I enjoyed Shishir'smodest, down-to-earth writing style. Since many people have criticizedthis book, let me refute the most common criticisms:"The source code should be on a CD-ROM".No. Programming is in the fingers. You learn by typing. Anyway, you canFTP it if your lazy."The level of detail is poor".That's what man pages and FAQ's are for. Shishir is giving more of a guided tour of CGI, with just enough detail to get started in each area."The source code has mistakes/is missing semicolons."I didn't find this problem. But anyway, you should know enough Perl to put the semicolons where they belong. If you don't know Perl, this bookis not for you.Everything in this book is available on the web, but the book will savethe beginner a ton of time digging around.Also, Shishir does not encourage use of CGI.pm, which is both good and bad. I think it's good because it teaches better understanding of the low-level CGI mechanics. On the flipside, use of CGI.pm can protectyou from a lot of obvious mistakes.I haven't found a better introduction to CGI.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overviews, but not details, November 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: CGI Programming on the World Wide Web (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

The author of this book does a nice job outlining many different aspects of CGI and perl, but it is nothing but an outline. If you need to quickly get a general idea on how to do something you have never done, this book does a nice job explaining it to you. However, if you want to do something more detailed involving any of the subjects discussed, you need to look elsewhere. The examples contained in the book are horrible. They are confusing when you look at them, contain little comments, and they often do not work. I found the text somewhat enlightening, but the examples just confused me. I do not recommend this book for beginners or more experienced programmers. I recommend it for anyone who fits in between.