CGI Programming on the World Wide Web

Gundavaram, Shishir

ISBN 10: 1565921682 / ISBN 13: 9781565921689

Published by O'Reilly Media, 1996

About this Item

Corners are slightly bent. Used - Good. Seller Inventory # 9-J-5-0139

Bibliographic Details

Title: CGI Programming on the World Wide Web

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Publication Date: 1996

Binding: paperback

Condition: Good

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

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

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.