CGI programming with Perl

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. This edition has been completely rewritten to use the
current techniques available in version 5 of Perl and two popular Perl modules, CGI.pm and CGI_lite.

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.

Topics include:

• Basic Perl techniques for parsing and output
  
• Embedding Server Side Includes (SSI)
  
• Graphics and simple animation
  
• Controlling browser caching
  
• Forms and magic cookies
  
• Gateways and SQL processing
  
• Internet communications
  
• FastCGI
  
• mod_perl
  
• Examples of games, imagemap manipulation, and other advanced applications

Table of contents>

Preface

Chapter 1: Getting Started

Chapter 2: The Hypertext Transport Protocol

Chapter 3: The Common Gateway Interface

Chapter 4: Forms and CGI

Chapter 5: CGI:pm

Chapter 6: HTML Templates

Chapter 7: JavaScript

Chapter 8: Security

Chapter 9: Sending Email

Chapter 10: Data Persistence

Chapter 11: Maintaining State

Chapter 12: Searching the Web Server

Chapter 13: Creating Graphics on the Fly

Chapter 14: Middleware and XML

Chapter 15: Debugging CGI Applications

Chapter 16: Guidelines for Better CGI Applications

Chapter 17: Efficiency and Optimization

Appendix A: Works Cited and Further Reading

Appendix B: Perl Modules

Index