Re: CGI

Thanks Matt! (and Rob and Jim)

Yeah, I know HTML, I have gotten pretty good with the Apache Web Server on 
the 400. I have several WebFaced projects running using SSL. SO, I think I 
have a good base to move on to something a little better than WebFacing. 
Glad to hear that about Free Form because I love free form, I am doing 
everything using free form. I am the only one in the shop that is doing it 
currently, but everyone likes it when they look at my code because they 
can follow what is going on so much easier.

I think based on my experience and what you have stated I am ready to just 
dive in head first and give it a try.


    Dave Reiher
    System Analyst
    Prairie Farms Dairy - Corporate
    dreiher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



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Re: [WEB400] CGI






Dave,

You do know HTML, right? If not, the tutorials at
http://www.w3schools.com/ are typically pretty good.

I picked it up mostly from an article that was in News/400 back in 1997
or 1998. It should be easy enough to find example CGI programs in RPG
and other languages and there are a couple of tools (CGIDEV2, Brad's
toolset, and I think there's another -- Bob Cozzi's?) that didn't exist
when I got started that will make life easier but I think you owe it to
yourself to learn the basics. If you can't find a simple example, let me
know and I'll post one.

It's been a long, long time since I went and looked for this so I don't
have any web sites for you but it should be easy enough to find out the
basics about how a CGI program works since the interface is a standard.

You also owe it to yourself to write at least one CGI program from
scratch before you use a tool to help you out. Learning from the
mistakes you make in this program will help you out with troubleshooting
when you use a tool. Knowing how CGI is supposed to work also helps in
troubleshooting. FWIW, free format RPG makes this type of CGI
programming much nicer.

If you're not using the HTTP server now, you'll also need to learn how
to configure it. If you are on V5R1 or newer, you want to use the Apache
based HTTP server (this is the only choice on V5R3 and newer). Make sure
you have the current (or at least a fairly recent) group PTF for the
HTTP server installed. There are a lot of configuration example in the
archives here and at http://www.ignite400.org. I also recommend the book
"Professional Apache 2.0" and official Apache documentation at
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/ (you may want to download a copy of
Apache 2.0 since the httpd.conf file that cones with it is full of
excellent examples that are well documented). You'll need to use the IBM
documentation in the InfoCenter to get started but the APACHEDFT
instance is a pretty good starting point. There are a couple of things
that are different between the official Apache server and what IBM
delivered: the options for basic authentication and SSL configuration
(IBM provides their own SSL plug in).

You may also want to take a look at Net.Data. It's great for simple
applications but it becomes difficult to work with for more complicated
ones. There are also some areas where it's slow (particularly when
dealing with large data sets) but I feel it's good to get at least a
little exposure to it. Ignite/400 has a bunch of examples and there's a
forum for it at http://www.dtwdude.com.

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Dave Reiher/prairiefarms
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 9:58 AM
To: web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [WEB400] CGI

Looking for recommendations on the best CGI resources, mainly books at 
this point.
I know Brad Stone has some that look good, and am sure Bob has some as 
well. 
Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks!!
    Dave Reiher
    System Analyst
    Prairie Farms Dairy - Corporate
    dreiher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx