Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide, 2nd Edition

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Features

• Task-based—Information is broken down into concise, one- and two-page tasks.

  • Allows students to learn the most important tasks of a program or operating system and get right to work on any project. Ex.___

• Step-by-Step—Numbered, easy-to-follow instructions.

  • Succinct numbered instructions provide a logical approach to learning tasks. Ex.___

• Visual Reference—Plenty of screen shots illustrate the step-by-step instructions.

  • Visually demonstrates and reinforces the instructions for a particular task as the students work at their computers. Ex.___

• Quick Reference Tabs—Tabs on each page identify the task.

  • Easy for the instructors and students to find a particular task and makes these texts useful after the course ends. Ex.___

• Shaded sidebars.

  • Sections that call attention to important features and additional helpful information. Ex.___

• Tips.

  • Highlighted through the book offer author advice, time-saving shortcuts, and pointers for students who want a further understanding of the program. Ex.___

• Industry-leading Authors.

  • Many of the authors are industry-leading teachers, writers, and designers, providing students with expert, professional training. Ex.___

• Value-priced.

  • All Visual QuickStart Guides are reasonably priced, making them an affordable option for learning multiple software programs. Ex.___

Description

Perl is one of the most popular scripting languages for adding powerful interactive features to Web pages. Perl lets you place forms on your site that collect and process user input such as comments and product orders; enables visitors to search for information; and can integrate a database into your site, among its many other capabilities. Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web, 2nd Edition: Visual QuickStart Guide fully revised and updated since its original 1998 release, gets users to the core of CGI scripting with Perl. Even first-time programmers will be able to create useful, workable scripts from scratch, or adapt and customize existing scripts to their own needs. Hundreds of screen shots and clear, easy-to-understand directions make this the perfect Perl book for beginners, as well as a handy reference for those with previous programming experience.

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Chapter 7

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.

What is a Program? Why Perl? What about CGI? Security Issues. Perl and HTML. About This Book. What This Book is Not. What's New. The Perl and CGI VQS Guide Web Site.

Perl Data. Operators and Functions. Quotation Marks. Quoting without Quotes. Statements, Blocks, and Scope. Declaring Private Variables. The Shebang Line. Creating a Perl CGI Script. Creating Output for a Browser. Documenting Your Script. Checking the Script's Syntax.

What is a Server? The Importance of Directories. Ask Your Web Host! Getting a Perl Interpreter. Getting CGI.pm.

Which Perl are They Running? What About CGI.pm? Installing Scripts on Unix Servers. Uploading Your Script. Changing Permissions. Testing Your Unix Server.

Installing the Xitami or Sambar Server. Installing Personal Web Server. Installing IIS on Windows 2000. Displaying File Extensions. Testing Your Server (Part I). Installing the Perl Interpreter. Installing CGI.pm. Installing Scripts on Windows Servers. Testing Your Server (Part II).

Installing Personal Web Sharing. The Root Web Directory. Carefully Sharing the Root Web Directory. Starting the Web Sharing Server. Testing the Server (Part I). Installing MacPerl. Installing CGI.pm. Installing Scripts on Mac Servers. Testing Your Server (Part II).

Labeling Incoming Data. Creating a Form. Creating Text Boxes. Creating Password Boxes. Creating Larger Text Areas. Creating Radio Buttons. Creating Checkboxes. Creating Menus. Creating the Submit Button. Resetting the Form. Using an Image to Submit Data. Creating a Link to a Script. Using a Link to Input Data to a Script.

Your Visitor's Browser and Platform. Viewing Available Environment Variables. Storing Data from Environment Variables.

Getting Single-Valued Form Data. Getting Multiple-Valued From Data. Getting All the Form Element's Names. Getting All the Names and Values.

Assigning a Value to a Scalar Variable. Multiplying, Dividing, Adding, Subtracting. Using More Than One Operator. Raising a Number to an Exponential Power. Using Mathematical Functions. Getting the Remainder of a Division. Connecting Strings Together. Repeating a String. Operating and Assigning in One Step. Incrementing (or Decrementing) a Variable.

Comparing Numbers. Comparing Strings. Evaluating Conditions without Comparisons. Testing Two or More Comparisons at a Time. Creating a Basic Conditional Statement. Adding Options for False Conditions. Adding Multiple, Independent Conditions. Using Unless. Repeating a Block for Each Item in an Array. Loading the Default Variable. Repeating a Block While a Condition is True. Repeating a Block While a Condition is False. Executing the Block at Least Once. Repeating a Block a Given Number of Times. Nesting Conditional Statements. Skipping a Loop Iteration. Jumping Out of a Loop Altogether.

Assigning a List to an Array Variable. Referring to a Particular Item in an Array. Referring to Multiple Items in an Array. Adding or Replacing an Item in an Array. Adding to the End or Beginning of an Array. Removing the Last Item from an Array. Removing the First Item from an Array. Replacing More Than One Item in an Array. Finding the Length of an Array. Modifying All the Members of an Array. Sorting Arrays. Reversing the Order of an Array's Contents.

Creating a Simple Subroutine. Using a Simple Subroutine. Creating a Subroutine That Takes Input. Calling a Subroutine That Takes Input. Using a Subroutine's Return Value. Setting the Return Value Manually. Storing Subroutines in an External File. Calling Subroutines from an External File.

Assigning a List to a Hash. Getting a Value by Using a Key. Adding or Replacing a Key-Value Pair. Getting Several Values Using Keys. Getting All of a Hash's Keys. Getting All of a Hash's Values. Getting Each Key and Value in a Hash. Getting the Pairs in a Specified Order. Removing Key-Value Pairs. Checking to See If a Key Exists.

Finding Something. Finding and Replacing. Seeing and Using What was Found. Splitting a Value into Pieces. Constructing Search Patterns. Tips for Constructing Search Patterns. Matching a Single Character. Matching a String of Characters. Matching a Character from a Group. Matching a Character That's Not in the Group. Using Class Shorthands. Limiting the Locations. Choosing How Many to Match. Curbing a Quantifier's Greediness. Matching One Element or Another. More on Using What You Already Matched.

About Hidden Fields. Adding Hidden Fields to a Form. Storing Collected Data in a Hidden Field. About Cookies. Looking at Your Browser's Cookies. Sending a Cookie. Setting a Cookie's Expiration Date. Limiting a Cookie to a Domain. Limiting a Cookie to a Part of Your Server. Limiting Cookies to Secure Connections. Reading and Using a Cookie. How (and Why) Visitors Refuse Cookies.

Formatting Output with Perl. Creating a Format Pattern for Integers. Creating a Format Pattern for Non-Integers. Creating a Pattern for Strings. Changing the Case. Changing Characters. Finding the Length of a String. Finding Where Something is in a String. Extracting One String from Another. Cleaning up the End of a String. Formatting Output with HTML. Printing Several Lines at a Time. Simplifying Paths to Images and Links. Outputting Data in a Table.

Reading the Security FAQs. The Problem with Visitor Input. Protecting Calls to the Systems. Limiting Access to Files. Using CGI.pm to Limit Incoming Data. Keeping Information to Yourself. Avoiding Tainted Data. Cleaning and Using Outside Data.

Opening a File. Verifying File and Directory Operations. Writing to an External File. Getting Exclusive Access to a File. Reading Data from an External File. Closing a File. Renaming a File. Removing a File. Checking a File's Status. Opening a Directory. Reading the Contents of a Directory. Closing a Directory. Changing the Working Directory. Creating a Directory. Changing Permissions from within a Script. Removing a Directory. Getting Ready to E-mail Output. Sending Output via E-mail.

Creating a Form for Uploading Files. Getting the Name of the Uploaded File. Finding Out a File's MIME Type. Specifying Where the File Should be Saved. Reading in and Limiting the Uploaded Files.

Checking the Easy Stuff. Creating an Error Subroutine. Using Perl's Error Reporting. Viewing the System Error Log. Isolating the Problem. Following a Variable's Progress.

Using Other Folks' Scripts. Getting Other People's Scripts. Expanding Compressed Scripts. Configuring Borrowed Scripts. Customizing Borrowed Scripts.

Figuring Out the Permissions Code. Default Permissions. Who's the Owner?

Telnetting to Your Unix Server. Executing Commands in Unix. Dealing with Paths in Unix. Changing the Working Directory. Finding Out Where You Are. Listing Directory Contents. Eliminating Files. Creating and Eliminating Directories. Decompressing Tar and Zipped Files. Getting Help with Unix.

Text Editors. Telnet Programs. Other Folks' Scripts. Learning More.

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