************************************************************
The CGI Language?
We hear the reference to CGI scripts quite commonly.
Perhaps it is this
that has led to a common misunderstanding about CGI.
When we talk about VB
scripts, we are talking about scripts written in the Visual Basic language.
Perl scripts are written in the Perl language.
It
’
s understandable,
therefore, that some folk would believe CGI scripts to be written in the CGI
language.
It
’
s not so though, I
’
m afraid.
CGI stands for the Common Gateway Interface.
Basically, while a web
server
’
s job is to serve up web pages, there is a need to be able to get at
and serve up information that is not held in web pages.
This information
might be stored, for example, in a database or perhaps in a series of text
files.
The CGI is a specification for how to implement an interface, or link,
between the web server and an application that has access to that
information.
It is, essentially, an agreement among web server implementers
on how to set up such an interface.
If you
’
d like to really get into it,
you can find all the technical details at
Common uses for the CGI are to enable programs written in languages like
PERL or UNIX Shell Scripts to incorporate dynamic information into otherwise
static web pages.
The language involved is the language of the application
itself, not the CGI.
The CGI is not a language.
In the HTML Goodies site there a several examples of using the interface to
connect to applications, including a guestbook, a poll and a bulletin
board.
You can find them at
In these examples, which were
mostly written by Joe Burns you will often see references to
"
a CGI
"
.
This
is common parlance, but it is misleading.
It is not so much
"
a CGI
"
as
"
an
application using the CGI
"
. It
’
s just that
"
a CGI
"
is so much quicker and
easier to say!
I hope that clears it up for you!
Thanks for Reading!
–
Vince Barnes
************************************************************
Q
&
A Goodies
***********************************
Questions are taken from submissions to our Community
Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by going to
I
’
m making a form that will be used by users to apply for a job.
I want to make sure that the form will not be submitted if they type text
into the
"
phone number
"
text box. All my attempts have failed, Could you
give me an idea of what is going on?
<
SCRIPT
>
var x = 0
function checkdata() {
if ( (document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
a
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
b
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
c
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
d
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
e
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
f
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
g
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
h
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
i
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
j
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
k
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
l
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
m
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
n
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
o
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
p
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
q
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
r
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
s
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
t
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
u
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
v
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
w
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
x
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
y
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
z
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
!
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
#
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
$
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
%
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
^
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
&
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
*
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
(
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
)
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
-
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
_
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
+
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
=
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
{
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
}
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
[
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
]
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
@
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
~
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
<
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
>
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
?
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
.
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
/
"
) == -1) ||
(document.job.dobday.value.indexOf(
"
|
"
) == -1)){x = 1}
}
if (x = 1){
alert(
"
no letters are allowed in the phone text box
"
);
return false;}
<
/SCRIPT
>
A.(1)Take a look at the HTMLGoodies Javascript Primer #29
–
Putting
It All Together: Form Field Validation located at
The example includes the validation of a numeric zip code that should be
easy enough to adapt to a phone number. It will also shorten your script
considerably.
A.(2)You could also use the method isNaN (is-Not-a-Number) to insure
that only numbers are entered.
It goes something like this:
if(isNaN(document.job.phone.value))
{alert(
"
Numbers only please!
"
)}
Q.I have recently made an e-mail form with the help of the tutorial
on the site, and my form is made up entirely of text boxes. However, I find
that the
text boxes are ugly.. I would like the borders of them to be a different
colour, so they do not have that
"
greay shadow
"
look. I know it is possible
to change the colour of them, as I have seen it done on another website, but
how can I do it on mine?
A.The easiest way to do it is to set up a style for the
"
input
"
in
you style sheet, since you are only using text boxes. The following will
also apply to any radio buttons or checkboxes that may be in the form. If
you add them later, you may want to set up a class. But for now, add this to
your style
sheet:
input { border: 1px solid black; }
You can use change the pixel size, or switch from solid to dashed. For
colors, you can use the text names that are available, or the hexidecimal
(#000000).
I have been asked to apply colors to the background and text of
the web page whenever an item in various list boxes has been changed. The
list boxes contain various background and text color choices, which have
been assigned variables within the apply_color() function that I just
created. Got any tips?
A.Here is a example of how you can set up various style classes with
the text color and background color and then through the dropdown assign one
of those classes to the body of the document.
This will change the color
for all text in the body of the document along with the background color.
This will not work in older browsers such as Netscape 4 versions:
<
html
>
<
head
>
<
title
>
<
/title
>
<
style
>
.tcolor {color:white;background-color:black}
.bcolor {color:black;background-color:white}
.jcolor {color:red;background-color:yellow}
.fcolor {color:blue;background-color:lightgreen}
<
/style
>
<
script type=
"
text/javascript
"
>
function doIt(selclass)
{
document.body.className=selclass
}
<
/script
>
<
/head
>
<
body class=
"
tcolor
"
>
This is some text that hopefully the color will change along with the
background color
<
form
>
<
select onChange=
"
doIt(this.options
[
this.selectedIndex
]
.value)
"
>
<
option value=
"
bcolor
"
>
Black/White
<
/option
>
<
option value=
"
jcolor
"
>
Red/Yellow
<
/option
>
<
option value=
"
fcolor
"
>
Blue/Lightgreen
<
/option
>
<
option value=
"
tcolor
"
>
White/Black
<
/option
>
<
/select
>
<
/form
>
<
/body
>
<
/html
>
Q.What is the simplest way to create a
‘
bookmark button
’
to book
mark (or add to favorites) a certain page?
I might mention that the page I
want to put it on is forwarded and masked, don
’
t know if that makes any
difference.
A.To place a bookmark link on a page you need to do the following.
I will use a link to take a person to the top of the page as an example.
Near the top of the page, usually directly after the
<
BODY
>
tag you would
enter the following:
<
a name=
"
top
"
>
<
/a
>
At the bottom of the page or any place you want the link you would create
the following link:
<
a href=
"
#top
"
>
TOP^
<
/a
>
When the link is clicked on you
"
jump
"
to the top of the page. If you want
to use a
"
bookmark
"
from one page to another you would create the link like
this:
http:www.your_site.com/your_page.htm#top
You can of course create as many as you need and name them differently for
diferent areas on the page. When you are masking you will have to use the
actual URL and not the shortened URL. For instance your actual URL might be
http://www.geocities.com/my_folder_name/my_page_name.htm
and you are pointing a shorter URL to it named
http://www.my-site.com. You have to use the longer URL in the hyperlink.
***********************************
Proxim Sells Out[
June 13, 2005
]
The struggling Wi-Fi equipment provider has filed for
bankruptcy and will become a subsidiary of another tech company to get out
from under debt.
Read the article:
[
June 13, 2005
]
Big Blue introduces a new supercomputer to complement its
high-flying Blue Gene/L machine in the research field.
Read the article:
[
June 13, 2005
]
UPDATED: Microsoft gives the small network equipment maker
the corporate WLAN contract once owned by Cisco.
Read the article:
[
June 13, 2005
]
Broadband telephony companies are taking different routes to
comply with the FCC
’
s order.
Read the article:
[
June 13, 2005
]
Integrated toolkit is designed to manage software licenses
throughout a company
’
s development lifecycle.
Read the article:
[
June 13, 2005
]
The new version promises a cleaner desktop experience and
PowerPC port, to boot.
Read the article:
[
June 10, 2005
]
Did Intel
’
s former CEO Andy Grove lay the groundwork for the
Apple-Intel deal?
Read the article:
[
June 10, 2005
]
Acrylic beta designed for organic-looking pixels and
vectors.
Read the article:
[
June 10, 2005
]
It
’
s hiding in an e-mail claiming the singer attempted
suicide.
Read the article:
[
June 10, 2005
]
The breach brings calls from some in the open source
community to gain control of the independent site.
Read the article:
***********************************
Did you ever wish your newsletter was an easy two way communications
medium?
Ploof! It now is!
If you would like to comment on the newsletter or expand/improve on
something you have seen in here, you can now send your input to:
mailto:nlfeedback@htmlgoodies.com
We already receive a lot of email every day.
This address helps us sort out
those relating specifically to this newsletter from all the rest.
When you
send email to this address it may wind up being included in this section of
the newsletter, to be shared with your fellow readers.
Please don
’
t send
your questions to this address.
They should be sent to our mentors: see
Thanks for all your feedback!
***********************************
Reading and Writing XML in .NET Version 2.0 – Part 1In the first part of his series on reading and writing XML in .NET 2.0, Alex
Homer discusses the XmlReader and XmlReaderSettings classes. The XmlReader
exposes several useful new features and the all new XmlReaderSettings class
makes it easy to generate single or multiple instances of an XmlReader with
a range of useful properties.
Using the DataGrid
’
s built in paging mechanism is a convenient and easy way
to implement paging, but as your database grows you may notice a
considerable delay while paging. The problem is that the DataGrid doesn
’
t
just get the records for the current page
…
it actually retrieves them all!
This acticle shows you a more efficient way to handle paging using some of
the new features in SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft
’
s Enterprise Library.
Of particular interest to ASP.NET developers is that when creating an
ASP.NET Web Form, hitting Enter to submit the form seemingly sometimes
causes the page
’
s Button Web control
’
s Click event to fire, and other times
not. In this short article we
’
ll see under what conditions a Button Web
control
’
s Click event might not fire when the user submits the page hitting
Enter; furthermore, we
’
ll look at a workaround. Read on to learn more!
***********************************
On this day in… 323BCAlexander the Great died of a fever at Babylon;
1886fire destroyed
nearly a thousand buildings in Vancouver BC;
1888The US Congress created
the Department of Labor;
193022 people were killed by hailstones in Siatista Greece;
1966the US Supreme Court handed down its Miranda decision,
stating that suspects must be read their rights;
1967Thurgood Marshall was
nominated as the first black US Supreme Court Judge;
1980the UN security
council called for S. Africa to release Nelson Mandela;
1983Pioneer 10
became the first man made object to leave the solar system;
1981a teenager
fired 6 blanks at Queen Elizabeth II;
1990Washington DC Mayor Marion Barry
announced he would not seek a fourth term;
Born today were: in
1865Irish poet William Butler Yeats;
1892S. African
actor Basil Rathbone;
1935Bulgaran wrap artist Christo;
1941actor Tom Hallick;
actor Robert Forester;
1951actor Richard Thomas;
1962actress
Ally Sheedy;
1986actress twins Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
The original home of HTML tutorials. HTMLGoodies is a website dedicated to publishing tutorials that cover every aspect of being a web developer. We cover programming and web development tutorials on languages and technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. In addition, our articles cover web frameworks like Angular and React.JS, as well as popular Content Management Systems (CMS) that include WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. Website development platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix are also featured. Topics related to solid web design and Internet Marketing also find a home on HTMLGoodies, as we discuss UX/UI Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and web dev best practices.
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