DIY Webmaster: Fiachra O Marcaigh on CGI without tears
Alongside good content, sharp design and clear navigation, interactivity is a key factor in allowing a site to do more for the user - and for the webmaster.
This interactivity ranges from the humble hit-counter through email feedback forms to fully fledged shopping carts. All of these move the focus from the browser "front-end" to "back-end" processing on the server. The bridge between the two is CGI, the common gateway interface, a way for web pages to interact with databases, files and programs on the server.
Many Internet service providers limit the CGI facilities available to users. Ireland Online, for example, does not let personal customers run their own CGI programs. It does provide some ready-made scripts, including hit-counters and mail-back forms, and there is a good guide to these at www.iol.ie/murraycp
Alternatively, www.cgi-free.com offers links to its CGI services from your pages. Only a few scripts are available, but the site's menu-driven interface makes it very easy to include its services in your pages.
Webmasters who have full CGI facilities on their host machines have much more flexibility - but they also have the problem of creating their own scripts. Rather than write them from scratch in Perl or another scripting language, it is much easier to find a sample script on the Web and modify it.
For excellent script downloads, see:
www.smithfam.com/scripting.html
cgi.resourceindex.com
Matt's Script Archive (www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/)
Selena Sol (www.extropia.com)