Citation
Pratchett, C. and Wright, M. (1999), "CGI/Perl Cookbook", Assembly Automation, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 78-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.1999.19.1.78.3
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
For those readers who have little or no knowledge of the Internet and the associated jargon, common gateway interface (CGI) is a protocol for Web server communication, and Perl is a programming language.
With something for everyone, the CGI/Perl Cookbook is suitable for all, from the beginner to the expert and is a highly readable and light‐hearted book. All the CGI programs and subroutines that are explained, and form the backbone of the book, can be found on the accompanying CD‐ROM, along with the most recent versions of Perl for Windows, UNIX and MacOS.
The 11 chapters are arranged into two distinct sections, “Getting started” and “The programs”. The first section includes a tutorial on how to use the book, a concise introduction to CGI programming and a guide to installing CGI programs on Web servers.
Seven varied and useful CGI programs are discussed and explained in the second section. Included are programs for file management, password protection and restricting access, gathering inputs and form handling, visitor feedback and customised bulk e‐mail, and a shopping cart to enable business transactions. A number of useful subroutines are also given, which allow credit card validation, e‐mail address checking and support, file encoding and encryption and error handling.
The appendices include a wide range of useful resources, with tips for debugging CGI programs, CGI environment variables, and security, a resource guide and information about HTTP header.
This book is a pleasure to read, suitable for anyone with an interest in interactive Web sites, and the validity of including the CDROM soon becomes apparent.