This course is designed for those with experience in creating Web pages. If you have attended WD201, this will be a partial review and an in-depth look at additional capabilities and features of CGI programs. No programming experience is needed.

Monday

• Static vs. Dynamic Information
• How CGI Works
• Examples of Scripts without User Input
• Forms and Form Elements
  • Textboxes
  • Radio buttons
  • Checkboxes
  • Select fields
  • Textareas
  • Submit and Reset buttons
• Form Layout
  • Usability
  • Tables
  • Fieldsets and Legends
• How data is sent to the server
• Processing form data
• Perl Overview
• Customized Response - A key to keeping visitors "engaged"
• Examples
  • Comments Forms
  • Customized Response
  • Sending Email
  • Self-modifying pages (Guestbooks)
  • Shopping Carts

• Lab #1:

  Attendees will modify existing "comments page" script to generated customized response based on users' rating of site (using radio buttons).
• Common CGI libraries
  • cgi-lib.pl
  • cgi.pm

Tuesday

• Platform differences
• Setting and retrieving Cookies

• Lab #2:

  The script will be modified to use cookies to remember how the user rated the site on the previous visit and comment on any change in rating.
• Database connectivity

• Lab #3:

  The final lab session will involve working with a "shopping cart" script which uses hidden fields to store the visitor's selections. The catalog will be dynamically created from a flat file of product information.