A Complete Guide to Web Design

248 Chapter 12 – Forms

Demystifying CGI

Web Design in a Nutshell, eMatter Edition

use. If there’s one already installed, it may save you some time in develop-

ment.

• Can you upload your own scripts to the server?Again, depending upon your
  arrangement for web site-hosting, you may not be permitted to upload your
  own scripts to the server, particularly if you are sharing a server with other
  sites.


• Do you have upload privileges to the cgi-bin directory?Assuming you can
  upload your own scripts to the server, you will need to make sure that you
  have write privileges to the directory where the scripts are stored (usually
  called cgi-bin). Your administrator may need to set up an account for you that
  gives you access to the directory and allows you to make your scripts read-
  able and executable by other users.


• On what kind of server is your site hosted? What server software is it running?
  Scripts are usually written to perform on a particular platform and web server
  software configuration. Before you spend time customizing a script, be sure
  that it can be run on your server.


• What is the exact pathname to the script (once installed)?You will need to
  include this in theactionsetting in a
  , or wherever you need to refer-
  ence the script.
  In addition, there will usually be a few questions specific to your chosen script
  that will need to be answered by your administrator. For instance, in order to run
  a Perl script, the basic Perl interpreter needs to be installed on the server. Or if
  you want a script that automatically takes the contents of a form and sends it in an
  email message, you may need to know the exact pathname of the sendmail
  program on the server (as we’ll see in the following example). You should also
  ask whether to use thepost orget method for transmitting form information.

Using Available Scripts

Let’s take a look at the process for customizing a free script found on one of the

CGI script archives. The purpose of this tutorial is to give you an idea of what to

expect and to show that you don’t need specific programming skills to do it.

In the following example, we use the FormMail script (written by Matt Wright),

which takes the contents of a form and sends it to a specified user in a formatted

email message. Although the script in its entirety (about nine book pages worth) is

not shown here, you can easily download it from Matt’s Script Archive (http://

http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/).

1. First, make all the necessary arrangements with your server administrator as
   outlined in the previous section. You should have an understanding of how
   your particular server and account handle CGI scripts before proceeding.


2. Download the script. Upon downloading, you are given the script as well as a
   very complete ReadMe file that outlines step-by-step the process for using the
   script. Read the documentation carefully.


3. Configure the script. You may need to make changes within the script itself to
   customize it for your use. Following is a sample of the FormMail script. (Note