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What Is CGI ?: Web Browsing

The document provides information about Common Gateway Interface (CGI). CGI allows web servers to interface with external applications and scripts. It defines how information is exchanged between a web server and custom scripts. CGI scripts can be written in languages like Perl, Shell, C/C++. The document also discusses CGI architecture, configuration, environment variables and how to pass information from a web browser to CGI scripts using GET and POST methods.

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491 views

What Is CGI ?: Web Browsing

The document provides information about Common Gateway Interface (CGI). CGI allows web servers to interface with external applications and scripts. It defines how information is exchanged between a web server and custom scripts. CGI scripts can be written in languages like Perl, Shell, C/C++. The document also discusses CGI architecture, configuration, environment variables and how to pass information from a web browser to CGI scripts using GET and POST methods.

Uploaded by

api-278351473
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is CGI ?

The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a set of standards that define how
information is exchanged between the web server and a custom script.

The CGI specs are currently maintained by the NCSA and NCSA defines CGI is as
follows:
The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a standard for external gateway programs to
interface with information servers such as HTTP servers.

The current version is CGI/1.1 and CGI/1.2 is under progress.

Web Browsing
To understand the concept of CGI, lets see what happens when we click a hyper link to browse a
particular web page or URL.

Your browser contacts the HTTP web server and demand for the URL ie. filename.

Web Server will parse the URL and will look for the filename in if it finds that file then
sends back to the browser otherwise sends an error message indicating that you have
requested a wrong file.

Web browser takes response from web server and displays either the received file or error
message.

However, it is possible to set up the HTTP server so that whenever a file in a certain directory is
requested that file is not sent back; instead it is executed as a program, and whatever that
program outputs is sent back for your browser to display. This function is called the Common
Gateway Interface or CGI and the programs are called CGI scripts. These CGI programs can be a
PERL Script, Shell Script, C or C++ program etc.

CGI Architecture Diagram

Web Server Support & Configuration


Before you proceed with CGI Programming, make sure that your Web Server supports CGI and
it is configured to handle CGI Programs. All the CGI Programs be executed by the HTTP server
are kept in a pre-configured directory. This directory is called CGI Directory and by convention
it is named as /cgi-bin. By convention PERL CGI files will have extention as .cgi.

First CGI Program


Here is a simple link which is linked to a CGI script called hello.cgi. This file is being kept in
/cgi-bin/ directory and it has following content. Before running your CGI program make sure
you have chage mode of file using chmod 755 hello.cgi UNIX command.
#!/usr/bin/perl
print
print
print
print
print
print
print

"Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";
'<html>';
'<head>';
'<title>Hello Word - First CGI Program</title>';
'</head>';
'<body>';
'<h2>Hello Word! This is my first CGI program</h2>';

print '</body>';
print '</html>';
1;
If you click hello.cgi then this produces following output:

Hello Word! This is my first CGI program


This hello.cgi script is a simple PERL script which is writing its output on STDOUT file ie.
screen. There is one important and extra feature available which is first line to be printed
Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n. This line is sent back to the browser and specifiy the content
type to be displayed on the browser screen. Now you must have undertood basic concept of CGI
and you can write many complicated CGI programs using PERL. This script can interact with
any other exertnal system also to exchange information such as RDBMS.

HTTP Header
The line Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n is part of HTTP header which is sent to the browser to
understand the content. All the HTTP header will be in the following form
HTTP Field Name: Field Content
For Example
Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n

There are few other important HTTP headers which you will use frequently in your CGI
Programming.

Header

Description

Content-type: String

A MIME string defining the format of the file being returned.


Example is Content-type:text/html

Expires: Date String

The date the information becomes invalid. This should be used by the
browser to decide when a page needs to be refreshed. A valid date
string should be in the format 01 Jan 1998 12:00:00 GMT.

Location: URL String

The URL that should be returned instead of the URL requested. You
can use this filed to redirect a request to any file.

Last-modified: String

The date of last modification of the resource.

Content-length:
String

The length, in bytes, of the data being returned. The browser uses
this value to report the estimated download time for a file.

Set-Cookie: String

Set the cookie passed through the string

CGI Environment Variables


All the CGI program will have access to the following environment variables. These variables
play an important role while writing any CGI program.
Variable Name

Description

CONTENT_TYPE

The data type of the content. Used when the client is sending
attached content to the server. For example file upload etc.

CONTENT_LENGTH

The length of the query information. It's available only for POST
requests

HTTP_COOKIE

Return the set cookies in the form of key & value pair.

HTTP_USER_AGENT

The User-Agent request-header field contains information about the


user agent originating the request. Its name of the web browser.

PATH_INFO

The path for the CGI script.

QUERY_STRING

The URL-encoded information that is sent with GET method


request.

REMOTE_ADDR

The IP address of the remote host making the request. This can be
useful for logging or for authentication purpose.

REMOTE_HOST

The fully qualified name of the host making the request. If this
information is not available then REMOTE_ADDR can be used to
get IR address.

REQUEST_METHOD

The method used to make the request. The most common methods
are GET and POST.

SCRIPT_FILENAME

The full path to the CGI script.

SCRIPT_NAME

The name of the CGI script.

SERVER_NAME

The server's hostname or IP Address

SERVER_SOFTWARE The name and version of the software the server is running.

Here is small CGI program to list out all the CGI variables. Click this link to see the result Get
Environment

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "<font size=+1>Environment</font>\n";
foreach (sort keys %ENV)
{
print "<b>$_</b>: $ENV{$_}<br>\n";
}
1;

How To Raise a "File Download" Dialog


Box ?
Sometime it is desired that you want to give option where a use will click a link and it will pop
up a "File Download" dialogue box to the user in stead of displaying actual content. This is very
easy and will be achived through HTTP header.
This HTTP header will be different from the header mentioned in previous section.
For example,if you want make a FileName file downloadable from a given link then its syntax
will be as follows.
#!/usr/bin/perl
# HTTP Header
print "Content-Type:application/octet-stream; name=\"FileName\"\r\n";
print "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"FileName\"\r\n\n";
# Actual File Content will go hear.
open( FILE, "<FileName" );
while(read(FILE, $buffer, 100) )
{
print("$buffer");
}

GET and POST Methods


You must have come across many situations when you need to pass some information from your
browser to web server and ultimately to your CGI Program. Most frequently browser uses two
methods two pass this information to web server. These methods are GET Method and POST
Method.

Passing Information using GET method:


The GET method sends the encoded user information appended to the page request. The page
and the encoded information are separated by the ? character as follows:
http://www.test.com/cgi-bin/hello.cgi?key1=value1&key2=value2

The GET method is the defualt method to pass information from browser to web server and it
produces a long string that appears in your browser's Location:box. Never use the GET method if
you have password or other sensitive information to pass to the server. The GET method has size
limtation: only 1024 characters can be in a request string.
This information is passed using QUERY_STRING header and will be accessible in your CGI
Program through QUERY_STRING environment variable
You can pass information by simply concatenating key and value pairs alongwith any URL or
you can use HTML <FORM> tags to pass information using GET method.

Simple URL Example : Get Method


Here is a simple URL which will pass two values to hello_get.cgi program using GET method.
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/cgi-bin/hello_get.cgi?first_name=ZARA&last_name=ALI
Below is hello_get.cgi script to handle input given by web browser.
#!/usr/bin/perl
local ($buffer, @pairs, $pair, $name, $value, %FORM);
# Read in text
$ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} =~ tr/a-z/A-Z/;
if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "GET")
{
$buffer = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};
}
# Split information into name/value pairs
@pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);
foreach $pair (@pairs)
{
($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair);
$value =~ tr/+/ /;
$value =~ s/%(..)/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
$FORM{$name} = $value;
}
$first_name = $FORM{first_name};
$last_name = $FORM{last_name};
print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print

"<html>";
"<head>";
"<title>Hello - Second CGI Program</title>";
"</head>";
"<body>";
"<h2>Hello $first_name $last_name - Second CGI Program</h2>";
"</body>";
"</html>";

1;

Simple FORM Example: GET Method


Here is a simple example which passes two values using HTML FORM and submit button. We
are going to use same CGI script hello_get.cgi to handle this imput.
<FORM action="/cgi-bin/hello_get.cgi" method="GET">
First Name: <input type="text" name="first_name"> <br>
Last Name: <input type="text" name="last_name">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</FORM>

Here is the actual output of the above form, You enter First and Last Name and then click submit
button to see the result.

First Name:
Last Name:

Passing Information using POST method:


A generally more reliable method of passing information to a CGI program is the POST method.
This packages the information in exactly the same way as GET methods, but instead of sending it
as a text string after a ? in the URL it sends it as a separate message. This message comes into the
CGI script in the form of the standard input.
Below is hello_post.cgi script to handle input given by web browser. This script will handle GET
as well as POST method.
#!/usr/bin/perl

local ($buffer, @pairs, $pair, $name, $value, %FORM);


# Read in text
$ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} =~ tr/a-z/A-Z/;
if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "POST")
{
read(STDIN, $buffer, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
}else {
$buffer = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};
}
# Split information into name/value pairs
@pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);
foreach $pair (@pairs)
{
($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair);
$value =~ tr/+/ /;
$value =~ s/%(..)/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
$FORM{$name} = $value;
}
$first_name = $FORM{first_name};
$last_name = $FORM{last_name};
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print

"Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";
"<html>";
"<head>";
"<title>Hello - Second CGI Program</title>";
"</head>";
"<body>";
"<h2>Hello $first_name $last_name - Second CGI Program</h2>";
"</body>";
"</html>";

1;

Let us take again same examle as above, which passes two values using HTML FORM and
submit button. We are going to use CGI script hello_post.cgi to handle this imput.
<FORM action="/cgi-bin/hello_post.cgi" method="POST">
First Name: <input type="text" name="first_name"> <br>
Last Name: <input type="text" name="last_name">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</FORM>

Here is the actual output of the above form, You enter First and Last Name and then click submit
button to see the result.

First Name:
Last Name:

Passing Checkbox Data to CGI Program


Checkboxes are used when more than one option is required to be selected.
Here is example HTML code for a form with two checkboxes
<form action="/cgi-bin/checkbox.cgi" method="POST" target="_blank">
<input type="checkbox" name="maths" value="on"> Maths
<input type="checkbox" name="physics" value="on"> Physics
<input type="submit" value="Select Subject">
</form>

The result of this code is the following form


Maths

Physics

Below is checkbox.cgi script to handle input given by web browser for radio button.
#!/usr/bin/perl
local ($buffer, @pairs, $pair, $name, $value, %FORM);
# Read in text
$ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} =~ tr/a-z/A-Z/;
if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "POST")
{
read(STDIN, $buffer, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
}else {
$buffer = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};
}
# Split information into name/value pairs
@pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);
foreach $pair (@pairs)
{
($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair);
$value =~ tr/+/ /;
$value =~ s/%(..)/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
$FORM{$name} = $value;
}
if( $FORM{maths} ){
$maths_flag ="ON";
}else{

$maths_flag ="OFF";
}
if( $FORM{physics} ){
$physics_flag ="ON";
}else{
$physics_flag ="OFF";
}
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print

"Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";
"<html>";
"<head>";
"<title>Checkbox - Third CGI Program</title>";
"</head>";
"<body>";
"<h2> CheckBox Maths is : $maths_flag</h2>";
"<h2> CheckBox Physics is : $physics_flag</h2>";
"</body>";
"</html>";

1;

Passing Radio Button Data to CGI Program


Radio Buttons are used when only one option is required to be selected.
Here is example HTML code for a form with two radio button:
<form action="/cgi-bin/radiobutton.cgi" method="POST" target="_blank">
<input type="radio" name="subject" value="maths"> Maths
<input type="radio" name="subject" value="physics"> Physics
<input type="submit" value="Select Subject">
</form>

The result of this code is the following form


Maths

Physics

Below is radiobutton.cgi script to handle input given by web browser for radio button.
#!/usr/bin/perl
local ($buffer, @pairs, $pair, $name, $value, %FORM);
# Read in text
$ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} =~ tr/a-z/A-Z/;
if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "POST")
{
read(STDIN, $buffer, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
}else {
$buffer = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};

}
# Split information into name/value pairs
@pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);
foreach $pair (@pairs)
{
($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair);
$value =~ tr/+/ /;
$value =~ s/%(..)/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
$FORM{$name} = $value;
}
$subject = $FORM{subject};
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print

"Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";
"<html>";
"<head>";
"<title>Radio - Fourth CGI Program</title>";
"</head>";
"<body>";
"<h2> Selected Subject is $subject</h2>";
"</body>";
"</html>";

1;

Passing Text Area Data to CGI Program


TEXTAREA element is used when multiline text has to be passed to the CGI Program.
Here is example HTML code for a form with a TEXTAREA box:
<form action="/cgi-bin/textarea.cgi" method="POST" target="_blank">
<textarea name="textcontent" cols=40 rows=4>
Type your text here...
</textarea>
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

The result of this code is the following form


Type your text here...

Below is textarea.cgi script to handle input given by web browser.


#!/usr/bin/perl
local ($buffer, @pairs, $pair, $name, $value, %FORM);

# Read in text
$ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} =~ tr/a-z/A-Z/;
if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "POST")
{
read(STDIN, $buffer, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
}else {
$buffer = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};
}
# Split information into name/value pairs
@pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);
foreach $pair (@pairs)
{
($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair);
$value =~ tr/+/ /;
$value =~ s/%(..)/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
$FORM{$name} = $value;
}
$text_content = $FORM{textcontent};
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print

"Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";
"<html>";
"<head>";
"<title>Text Area - Fifth CGI Program</title>";
"</head>";
"<body>";
"<h2> Entered Text Content is $text_content</h2>";
"</body>";
"</html>";

1;

Passing Drop Down Box Data to CGI


Program
Drop Down Box is used when we have many options available but only one or two will be
selected.
Here is example HTML code for a form with one drop down box
<form action="/cgi-bin/dropdown.cgi" method="POST" target="_blank">
<select name="dropdown">
<option value="Maths" selected>Maths</option>
<option value="Physics">Physics</option>
</select>
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

The result of this code is the following form


Below is dropdown.cgi script to handle input given by web browser.

#!/usr/bin/perl
local ($buffer, @pairs, $pair, $name, $value, %FORM);
# Read in text
$ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} =~ tr/a-z/A-Z/;
if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "POST")
{
read(STDIN, $buffer, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
}else {
$buffer = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};
}
# Split information into name/value pairs
@pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);
foreach $pair (@pairs)
{
($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair);
$value =~ tr/+/ /;
$value =~ s/%(..)/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
$FORM{$name} = $value;
}
$subject = $FORM{dropdown};
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print
print

"Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";
"<html>";
"<head>";
"<title>Dropdown Box - Sixth CGI Program</title>";
"</head>";
"<body>";
"<h2> Selected Subject is $subject</h2>";
"</body>";
"</html>";

1;

Using Cookies in CGI


HTTP protocol is a stateless protocol. But for a commercial website it is required to maintain
session information among different pages. For example one user registration ends after
completing many pages. But how to maintain user's session information across all the web pages.
In many situations, using cookies is the most efficient method of remembering and tracking
preferences, purchases, commissions, and other information required for better visitor experience
or site statistics.

How It Works
Your server sends some data to the visitor's browser in the form of a cookie. The browser may
accept the cookie. If it does, it is stored as a plain text record on the visitor's hard drive. Now,
when the visitor arrives at another page on your site, the cookie is available for retrieval. Once
retrieved, your server knows/remembers what was stored.

Cookies are a plain text data record of 5 variable-length fields:

Expires : The date the cookie will expire. If this is blank, the cookie will expire when the
visitor quits the browser.

Domain : The domain name of your site.

Path : The path to the directory or web page that set the cookie. This may be blank if you
want to retrieve the cookie from any directory or page.

Secure : If this field contains the word "secure" then the cookie may only be retrieved
with a secure server. If this field is blank, no such restriction exists.

Name=Value : Cookies are set and retrviewed in the form of key and value pairs.

Setting up Cookies
This is very easy to send cookies to browser. These cookies will be sent along with HTTP
Header. Assuming you want to set UserID and Password as cookies. So it will be done as follows
#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Set-Cookie:UserID=XYZ;\n";
print "Set-Cookie:Password=XYZ123;\n";
print "Set-Cookie:Expires=Tuesday, 31-Dec-2007 23:12:40 GMT";\n";
print "Set-Cookie:Domain=www.tutorialspoint.com;\n";
print "Set-Cookie:Path=/perl;\n";
print "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";
...........Rest of the HTML Content....

From this example you must have understood how to set cookies. We use Set-Cookie HTTP
header to set cookies.
Here it is optional to set cookies attributes like Expires, Domain, and Path. It is notable that
cookies are set before sending magic line "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n.

Retrieving Cookies
This is very easy to retrieve all the set cookies. Cookies are stored in CGI environment variable
HTTP_COOKIE and they will have following form.
key1=value1;key2=value2;key3=value3....

Here is an example of how to retrieving cookies.

#!/usr/bin/perl
$rcvd_cookies = $ENV{'HTTP_COOKIE'};
@cookies = split /;/, $rcvd_cookies;
foreach $cookie ( @cookies ){
($key, $val) = split(/=/, $cookie); # splits on the first =.
$key =~ s/^\s+//;
$val =~ s/^\s+//;
$key =~ s/\s+$//;
$val =~ s/\s+$//;
if( $key eq "UserID" ){
$user_id = $val;
}elsif($key eq "Password"){
$password = $val;
}
}
print "User ID = $user_id\n";
print "Password = $password\n";
This will produce following result
User ID = XYZ
Password = XYZ123

CGI Modules and Libraries


You will find many built-in modules over the internet which provide you direct functions to use
in your CGI program. Following are the important once.

CGI Module

Berkeley cgi-lib.pl

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