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Preface
1. Getting Started
History
Introduction to CGI
Alternative Technologies
Web Server Configuration
2. The Hypertext Transport Protocol
URLs
HTTP
Browser Requests
Server Responses
Proxies
Content Negotiation
Summary
3. The Common Gateway Interface
The CGI Environment
Environment Variables
CGI Output
Examples
4. Forms and CGI
Sending Data to the Server
Form Tags
Decoding Form Input
5. CGI.pm
Overview
Handling Input with CGI.pm
Generating Output with CGI.pm
Alternatives for Generating Output
Handling Errors
6. HTML Templates
Reasons for Using Templates
Server Side Includes
HTML::Template
Embperl
Mason
7. JavaScript
Background
Forms
Data Exchange
Bookmarklets
8. Security
The Importance of Web Security
Handling User Input
Encryption
Perl's Taint Mode
Data Storage
Summary
9. Sending Email
Security
Email Addresses
Structure of Internet Email
sendmail
mailx and mail
Perl Mailers
procmail
10. Data Persistence
Text Files
DBM Files
Introduction to SQL
DBI
11. Maintaining State
Query Strings and Extra Path Information
Hidden Fields
Client-Side Cookies
12. Searching the Web Server
Searching One by One
Searching One by One, Take Two
Inverted Index Search
13. Creating Graphics on the Fly
File Formats
Outputting Image Data
Generating PNGs with GD
Additional GD Modules
PerlMagick
14. Middleware and XML
Communicating with Other Servers
An Introduction to XML
Document Type Definition
Writing an XML Parser
CGI Gateway to XML Middleware
15. Debugging CGI Applications
Common Errors
Perl Coding Techniques
Debugging Tools
16. Guidelines for Better CGI Applications
Architectural Guidelines
Coding Guidelines
17. Efficiency and Optimization
Basic Perl Tips, Top Ten
FastCGI
mod_perl
A. Works Cited and Further Reading
B. Perl Modules
Index