- Introduction
- Stage 1: Sizing and Graphics - Setting Up Your Form
- Stage 2: ActionScripting - Making Flash Talk to CGI
- Stage 3: CGI—What Is It, and How Does It Work?
- Stage 4: Troubleshooting and Uploading the Final Files
Stage 3: CGI—What Is It, and How Does It Work?
I am not the one to discuss this topic, so I have called in a friend to help out in this area. The following excerpt is from Michael Keszkowski, a programmer I work with. He also created and maintains the Source Code Central Web site.
CGI is a server-based service that provides an extra layer of functionality to a Web page. CGI is not a programming language; rather, it is a set of rules that the Web server follows to return dynamic content back to the browser. The Web server will transform an ordinary, static HTML page into a page that is alive with interesting, interactive content based on the instructions presented to it in a Perl script. Perl is the most commonly used language for writing CGI scripts.
Well, that covers the introductory material, so let me just drop the code in here and make a few notes about what you should change and what to look for when troubleshooting.
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
####### This uses the CGI.pm module, which parses the input
# (from both POST and GET methods)
# and stores those values in an object called $query.
####### The easiest and most painless way!
use CGI;
$query = new CGI;
#######
# Location of the sendmail program
#######
$sendmail = '/usr/lib/sendmail';
#######
# Variables from Flash form
#######
$to = $query->param("to");
$from = $query->param("from");
$body = $query->param("body");
$subject = $query->param("subject");
#######
# Executes the sendmail
#######
if ($to ne ""){
if (($to =~ /@/) && ($to =~ /./)) {
$sent = "sent=true";
print "content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "$sent";
open(MAIL, "|$sendmail -oi -t") or die "Can't open pipe
to $sendmail: $!\n";
print MAIL "To: $to \n";
print MAIL "From: $from\n";
print MAIL "Subject: $subject \n";
print MAIL "$body";
close(MAIL) or die "Can't close pipe to $sendmail: $!\n";
$sent="yes";
exit();
}else{
$sent = "sent=invalid+email";
print "content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "$sent";
exit();
}
}else{
$sent = "sent=null+email";
print "content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "$sent";
exit();
}
This script is broken down into four commented sections. If you are not used to looking at Perl-CGI scripts, the commented areas are those lines preceded by the pound sign (#).