PERL and CGI for the world wide web

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 Guidefully 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.

Author Notes

Elizabeth Castro is the author of four best-selling editions of HTML for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide . She also wrote the best-selling Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide , and XML for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide .

Chapter 1 Introduction	p. 13
What Is a Program?	p. 14
Why Perl?	p. 15
What about CGI?	p. 16
Security Issues	p. 17
Perl and HTML	p. 18
About This Book	p. 19
What This Book Is Not	p. 20
What's New	p. 21
The Perl and CGI VQS Guide Web Site	p. 22
Chapter 2 Perl Building Blocks	p. 23
Perl Data	p. 24
Operators and Functions	p. 28
Quotation Marks	p. 30
Quoting without Quotes	p. 31
Statement, Blocks, and Scope	p. 32
Declaring Private Variables	p. 34
The Shebang Line	p. 35
Creating a Perl CGI Script	p. 36
Creating Output for a Browser	p. 38
Documenting Your Script	p. 39
Checking the Script's Syntax	p. 40
Chapter 3 About Servers, Perl, and CGI.pm	p. 41
What Is a Server?	p. 42
The Importance of Directories	p. 44
Ask Your Web Host!	p. 46
Getting a Perl Interpreter	p. 47
Getting CGI.pm	p. 48
Chapter 4 Running Perl CGI on a Unix Server	p. 49
Which Perl Are They Running?	p. 50
What About CGI.pm?	p. 51
Installing Scripts on Unix Servers	p. 52
Uploading Your Script	p. 53
Changing Permissions	p. 56
Testing Your Unix Server	p. 58
Chapter 5 Testing Scripts Locally on Windows	p. 59
Installing the Xitami or Sambar Server	p. 60
Installing Personal Web Server	p. 62
Installing IIS on Windows 2000	p. 64
Displaying File Extensions	p. 65
Testing Your Server (Part 1)	p. 66
Installing the Perl Interpreter	p. 67
Installing CGI.pm	p. 68
Installing Scripts on Windows Servers	p. 69
Testing Your Server (Part II)	p. 70
Chapter 6 Testing Scripts Locally on the Mac	p. 71
Installing Personal Web Sharing	p. 72
The Root Web Directory	p. 73
Carefully Sharing the Root Web Directory	p. 74
Starting the Web Sharing Server	p. 76
Testing the Server (Part 1)	p. 77
Installing MacPerl	p. 78
Installing CGI.pm	p. 79
Installing Scripts on Mac Servers	p. 80
Testing Your Server (Part II)	p. 81
Chapter 7 Getting Data from Visitors	p. 83
Labeling Incoming Data	p. 84
Creating a Form	p. 86
Creating Text Boxes	p. 87
Creating Password Boxes	p. 88
Creating Larger Text Areas	p. 89
Creating Radio Buttons	p. 90
Creating Checkboxes	p. 91
Creating Menus	p. 92
Creating the Submit Button	p. 93
Resetting the Form	p. 94
Using an Image to Submit Data	p. 95
Creating a Link to a Script	p. 96
Using a Link to Input Data to a Script	p. 97
Chapter 8 Environment Variables	p. 99
Your Visitor's Browser and Platform	p. 100
Viewing Available Environment Variables	p. 101
Storing Data from Environment Variables	p. 102
Chapter 9 Getting Data into the Script	p. 103
Getting Single-Valued Form Data	p. 104
Getting Multiple-Valued Form Data	p. 105
Getting All the Form Element's Names	p. 106
Getting All the Names and Values	p. 107
Chapter 10 Simple Operations with Scalars	p. 109
Assigning a Value to a Scalar Variable	p. 110
Multiplying, Dividing, Adding, Subtracting	p. 112
Using More Than One Operator	p. 113
Raising a Number to an Exponential Power	p. 114
Using Mathematical Functions	p. 115
Getting the Remainder of a Division	p. 116
Connecting Strings Together	p. 117
Repeating a String	p. 118
Operating and Assigning in One Step	p. 119
Incrementing (or Decrementing) a Variable	p. 120
Chapter 11 Conditionals and Loops	p. 121
Comparing Numbers	p. 122
Comparing Strings	p. 123
Evaluating Conditions without Comparisons	p. 124
Testing Two or More Comparisons at a Time	p. 125
Creating a Basic Conditional Statement	p. 126
Adding Options for False Conditions	p. 127
Adding Multiple, Independent Conditions	p. 128
Using Unless	p. 129
Repeating a Block for Each Item in an Array	p. 130
Loading the Default Variable	p. 131
Repeating a Block While a Condition Is True	p. 132
Repeating a Block While a Condition Is False	p. 133
Executing the Block at Least Once	p. 134
Repeating a Block a Given Number of Times	p. 135
Nesting Conditional Statements	p. 136
Skipping a Loop Iteration	p. 137
Jumping out of a Loop Altogether	p. 138
Chapter 12 Working with Arrays	p. 139
Assigning a List to an Array Variable	p. 140
Referring to a Particular Item in an Array	p. 142
Referring to Multiple Items from an Array	p. 144
Adding or Replacing an Item in an Array	p. 145
Adding to the End or Beginning of an Array	p. 146
Removing the Last Item from an Array	p. 148
Removing the First Item from an Array	p. 149
Replacing More Than One Item in an Array	p. 150
Finding the Length of an Array	p. 152
Modifying All the Members of an Array	p. 153
Sorting Arrays	p. 154
Reversing the Order of an Array's Contents	p. 155
Chapter 13 Subroutines	p. 157
Creating a Simple Subroutine	p. 158
Using a Simple Subroutine	p. 159
Creating a Subroutine That Takes Input	p. 160
Calling a Subroutine That Takes Input	p. 161
Using a Subroutine's Return Value	p. 162
Setting the Return Value Manually	p. 163
Storing Subroutines in an External File	p. 164
Calling Subroutines from an External File	p. 165
Chapter 14 Working with Hashes	p. 167
Assigning a List to a Hash	p. 168
Getting a Value by Using a Key	p. 169
Adding or Replacing a Key-Value Pair	p. 170
Getting Several Values Using Keys	p. 171
Getting All of a Hash's Keys	p. 172
Getting All of a Hash's Values	p. 173
Getting Each Key and Value in a Hash	p. 174
Getting the Pairs in a Specified Order	p. 176
Removing Key-Value Pairs	p. 178
Checking to See If a Key Exists	p. 179
Chapter 15 Analyzing Data	p. 181
Finding Something	p. 182
Finding and Replacing	p. 183
Seeing and Using What Was Found	p. 184
Splitting a Value into Pieces	p. 185
Constructing Search Patterns	p. 186
Tips for Constructing Search Patterns	p. 187
Matching a Single Character	p. 188
Matching a String of Characters	p. 189
Matching a Character from a Group	p. 190
Matching a Character That's Not in the Group	p. 191
Using Class Shorthands	p. 192
Limiting the Location	p. 193
Choosing How Many to Match	p. 195
Curbing a Quantifier's Greediness	p. 200
Matching One Element or Another	p. 201
More on Using What You Already Matched	p. 202
Chapter 16 Remembering What Visitors Tell You	p. 205
About Hidden Fields	p. 206
Adding Hidden Fields to a Form	p. 207
Storing Collected Data in a Hidden Field	p. 208
About Cookies	p. 210
Looking at Your Browser's Cookies	p. 211
Sending a Cookie	p. 212
Setting a Cookie's Expiration Date	p. 214
Limiting a Cookie to a Domain	p. 215
Limiting a Cookie to a Part of Your Server	p. 216
Limiting Cookies to Secure Connections	p. 217
Reading and Using a Cookie	p. 218
How (and Why) Visitors Refuse Cookies	p. 220
Chapter 17 Formatting, Printing, and HTML	p. 221
Formatting Output with Perl	p. 222
Creating a Format Pattern for Integers	p. 223
Creating a Format Pattern for Non-Integers	p. 224
Creating a Pattern for Strings	p. 225
Changing the Case	p. 226
Changing Characters	p. 227
Finding the Length of a String	p. 228
Finding Where Something Is in a String	p. 229
Extracting One String from Another	p. 230
Cleaning up the End of a String	p. 231
Formatting Output with HTML	p. 232
Printing Several Lines at a Time	p. 234
Simplifying Paths to Images and Links	p. 235
Outputting Data in a Table	p. 236
Chapter 18 Security	p. 237
Reading the Security FAQs	p. 238
The Problem with Visitor Input	p. 239
Protecting Calls to the System	p. 240
Limiting Access to Files	p. 241
Using CGI.pm to Limit Incoming Data	p. 242
Keeping Information to Yourself	p. 243
Avoiding Tainted Data	p. 244
Cleaning and Using Outside Data	p. 245
Chapter 19 Files and Directories	p. 247
Opening a File	p. 248
Verifying File and Directory Operations	p. 250
Writing to an External File	p. 251
Getting Exclusive Access to a File	p. 252
Reading Data from an External File	p. 253
Closing a File	p. 254
Renaming a File	p. 255
Removing a File	p. 256
Checking a File's Status	p. 257
Opening a Directory	p. 258
Reading the Contents of a Directory	p. 259
Closing a Directory	p. 260
Changing the Working Directory	p. 261
Creating a Directory	p. 262
Changing Permissions from within a Script	p. 263
Removing a Directory	p. 264
Getting Ready to E-mail Output	p. 265
Sending Output via E-mail	p. 266
Chapter 20 Uploading Files	p. 269
Creating a Form for Uploading Files	p. 270
Getting the Name of the Uploaded File	p. 271
Finding out a File's MIME Type	p. 272
Specifying Where the File Should Be Saved	p. 273
Reading in and Limiting Uploaded Files	p. 274
Appendix A Debugging	p. 277
Checking the Easy Stuff	p. 278
Creating an Error Subroutine	p. 280
Using Perl's Error Reporting	p. 281
Viewing the System Error Log	p. 282
Isolating the Problem	p. 283
Following a Variable's Progress	p. 284
Appendix B Using Other Folks' Scripts	p. 285
Using Other Folks' Scripts	p. 286
Getting Other People's Scripts	p. 287
Expanding Compressed Scripts	p. 288
Configuring Borrowed Scripts	p. 289
Customizing Borrowed Scripts	p. 290
Appendix C Permissions on Unix	p. 291
Figuring out the Permissions Code	p. 292
Default Permissions	p. 293
Who's the Owner?	p. 294
Appendix D Unix Essentials	p. 295
Telnetting to Your Unix Server	p. 296
Executing Commands in Unix	p. 298
Dealing with Paths in Unix	p. 299
Changing the Working Directory	p. 302
Finding out Where You Are	p. 303
Listing Directory Contents	p. 304
Eliminating Files	p. 305
Creating and Eliminating Directories	p. 306
Decompressing Tar and Zipped Files	p. 307
Getting Help with Unix	p. 308
Appendix E Perl and CGI Resources	p. 309
Text Editors	p. 310
Telnet Programs	p. 311
Other Folks' Scripts	p. 312
Learning More	p. 313
Index	p. 315

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Table of Contents