CGI scripts/forms

[Walter Lewis]

> >I for one would like to know how to do basic cgi-based forms and would 
> >greatly appreciate input from someone who can make it seem EASY to do.
> >Please guide me to the Web sites, etc. that might give a "recipe" for 
> >setting up a search form for a Web Page.  I have a few books on 
> >Web Page construction but the cgi-based information is not totally clear.
> >Cynthia D. Bertelsen
> >Blacksburg, VA

A "CGI for Dummies" might recommend an NT based server (the four or five 
most popular are supported) and "Cold Fusion" (URL available via Yahoo, I 
believe).

What you get for about $500 US is an NT program that takes the data from 
the forms (lots of examples of forms bundled) and passed an ODBC query to 
the appropriate database (we tested against dBase, FoxPRo and Access but 
any DB with ODBC drivers should work.

Match the Syntax in the SQL statement (Access will build a surrogate off 
the shelf), get the HTML tags right for the output, fit that into a 
couple of "DBML" tags and you're done, no messy Visual Basic/C, C++, PERL 
etc.

To see an example working try http://www.hhpl.on.ca/hhplref.htm and pick 
up the Local History link. Just realize if you log in during the EST 
schoolday you're competing with an entire schoolboard and logging into an 
a 486/33.

The biggest challenge is often getting management to value your time 
(i.e. I can build a solution that's cheaper, given two weeks to do it)

Walter Lewis		  		     walter.lewis at sheridanc.on.ca
Deputy Chief Librarian/Systems
Halton Hills Public Library, Georgetown, ON Canada L7G 2A3 (905) 873-2681