by Shelley Powers
Perl has become very popular, both because of its ease of use in proportion to its capability and because it is freely and easily available for many different operating systems. Appendix A, "Perl Acquisition and Installation," describes where you can access Perl for your operating system and provided some installation instructions for some of the most popular operating systems. This appendix lists some of the Internet sites where you can get Perl-related libraries, scripts, documents, and other goodies.
The first section describes usenets that you can browse through and pick up useful information. Additionally, any time you have a question on Perl or on CGI programming, you can post to one of these groups and usually get at least one response within eight hours.
The second section describes sites that have useful Web, CGI, and Perl-related libraries, samples, code, and documentation that can be extremely helpful. The sites may also include libraries for database access and for other important Internet and intranet activities.
The last section describes sites that have useful Perl libraries, samples, code, and documentation that are not necessarily Web-related.
If you are new to CGI programming with Perl, you will want to visit each of the sites listed in this appendix. Doing so will give you a good understanding of what scripts, libraries, modules, and documentation are available (in addition to this book) to help you become a great CGI programmer. As you visit the sites, jot down the downloadable files that interest you, including their version and the date. When you finish visiting the sites, you will know where to access the most recent tools, and you can begin to download and build your own CGI development library.
To see the latest Perl-related announcements, check out comp.lang.perl.announce. You should also check out the CPAN sites (listed in Appendix A and repeated later in this appendix) for announcements of new releases. In addition, you can find archives of this usenet at any of the CPAN sites, in the /CLPA subdirectory.
The usenet comp.lang.perl.modules is very helpful if you want to check out what modules are available and how they are being used; if you have questions about or problems with existing Perl modules; or if you want to ask about the existence of modules to support a particular need.
The last perl-specific usenet is comp.lang.perl.tk. Tk is an interface tool (developed by Sun) primarily for use with Tcl, an embeddable scripting language. Tk extensions to Perl 5.0 have been made to allow integration. If you are interesting in using both tools, you definitely want to check out this usenet. You can also find a FAQ for this usenet at http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.html.
Another useful usenet is comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi. This group contains many references to CGI programming with Perl, which is still one of the most popular approaches. You will want to glance through all the usenets that begin with comp.infosystems.www to find those that best meet your needs.
Table B.1 recaps the usenets discussed in this section.
Usenet Name | Subject |
---|---|
comp.lang.perl | General perl language discussions |
comp.lang.perl.misc | General perl language and tool discussions |
comp.lang.perl.announce | Perl-related announcements |
comp.lang.perl.tk | Perl/Tk integration discussions |
comp.infosystems.www. authoring.cgi | CGI issues in Web authoring |
Fig. 0b.1 - This figure shows the Yahoo WWW site.
To find several sources that have Perl-related information, access Yahoo's site on Perl programming at http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Programming_Languages/Perl/. You can access information on CGI programming in general by starting at http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/CGI___Common_Gateway_Interface/. In addition, you can access http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Programming/ to find information that is specific to programming on the Web, including a section on Perl scripts.
Script/Module | Covers |
---|---|
MailForm.cgi | Customizable mail-form CGI script |
Guestbook.cgi | Guestbook CGI script |
Logger.cgi | Simple script that logs visitors |
FrameChat | Odd little application that implements a frames-based chat service (requires Perl 5.0) |
You can reach the site at http://seclab.cs.ucdavis.edu/~hoagland/hfpm/.
This site is a must-visit site; you can reach it at http://www2.eff.org/~erict/Scripts/. Table B.3 lists some of the samples and describes what they do.
Example | Description |
---|---|
Selena Sol's Electronic Outlet 2.0 (database) | Complete set of files to implement a databaselike shopping-cart system |
Selena Sol's Electronic Outlet 2.0 | Same as preceding example, (HTML) but HTML-based |
Cool Runnings Music Catalog | Shopping-cart concept for catalogs |
The Form Processor | Processes form input, using hidden variables |
Database Manager 2.0 | Flat-file database management tool |
Database Search Engine 1.0 | Search engine for Database Manager 2.0 |
Groupware Calendar | Calendar that can be read/modified by group |
Keyword Search Engine 3.0 | Traverses HTML documents, searches for keyword, and returns output |
authentication-lib.pl | Authentication perl module |
date.pl | Date-based perl module |
When you access the Library of Web Development at http://WWW.Stars.com/Vlib/, you will think that you have died and gone to some version of a pleasant afterlife. Accessing the encyclopedia only confirms this thought. This site is an incredibly rich source of links to virtually any Web development topic that you can think of. The CGI page has 69 links, the HTML has 55 links, and so on.
This site is a definite must to visiting, especially when you have time to do a little link-hopping and exploring or when you need to find a Web development resource.
The categories listed at the site are:
In addition, a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) called PERLS.DLL is available at http://www.perl.hip.com/perlis.htm, This library works with the Microsoft Internet Information Server to improve the efficiency of CGI access with Perl. Notice that the release of this DLL may still be a beta release.
From this site, you can access a helpful tutorial on SSI, located at http://www.carleton.ca/~dmcfet/html/ssi1.html. Additionally, although SSI works with a Web server such as NCSA HTTPd (http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/tutorials/includes.html), it does not work with the CERN server. You can, however, access a Perl module, fakessi.pl, at http://sw.cse.bris.ac.uk/WebTools/fakessi.html. This module provides SSI-like functionality.
Site | URL |
---|---|
North America: Canada | ftp://enterprise.ic.gc.ca/pub/ perl/CPAN/ |
North America: California | ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/plan/ perl/CPAN/ |
North America: California | ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/perl/ CPAN/ |
North America: Colorado | ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/ perl/CPAN/ |
North America: Florida | ftp://ftp.cis.ufl.edu/pub/perl/ CPAN/ |
North America: Illinois | ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/ lang/perl/CPAN/ |
North America: New York | ftp://ftp.rge.com/pub/languages/ perl/CPAN/ |
North America: Oklahoma | ftp://ftp.uoknor.edu/mirrors/ CPAN/ |
North America: Texas | ftp://ftp.sterling.com/ programming/languages/perl/ |
North America: Texas | ftp://ftp.sedl.org/pub/mirrors/ CPAN/ |
North America: Texas | ftp://ftp.metronet.com/pub/perl/ |
Africa | ftp://ftp.is.co.za/programming/ perl/CPAN/ |
Australia | ftp://coombs.anu.edu.au/pub/perl/ |
Australia | ftp://ftp.mame.mu.oz.au/pub/perl/ CPAN/ |
New Zealand | ftp://ftp.tekotago.ac.nz/pub/ perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: Austria | ftp://ftp.tuwien.ac.at/pub/ languages/perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: Belgium | ftp://ftp.kulnet.kuleuven.ac.be/ pub/mirror/CPAN/ |
Europe: Czech Republic | ftp://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/ Languages/Perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: Denmark | ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/ languages/perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: Finland | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/ languages/perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: France | ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: France | ftp://ftp.pasteur.fr/pub/ computing/unix/perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: Germany | ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/ programming/languages/perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: Germany | ftp://ftp.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/ pub/CPAN/ |
Europe: Greece | ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/lang/perl/ |
Europe: Hungary | ftp://ftp.kfki.hu/pub/packages/ perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: Italy | ftp://cis.utovrm.it/CPAN/ |
Europe: The Netherlands | ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/PERL/ CPAN/ |
Europe: Poland | ftp://ftp.pk.edu.pl/pub/lang/ perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: Poland | ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/ CPAN/ |
Europe: Portugal | ftp://ftp.ci.uminho.pt/pub/lang/ perl/ |
Europe: Spain | ftp://ftp.etse.urv.es/pub/mirror/ perl/ |
Europe: Spain | ftp://ftp.rediris.es/mirror/CPAN/ |
Europe: Sweden | ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/lang/perl/ CPAN/ |
Europe: Switzerland | ftp://ftp.switch.ch/mirror/CPAN/ |
Europe: United Kingdom | ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ mirrors/perl/CPAN/ |
Europe: United Kingdom | ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/ packages/CPAN/ |
Europe: United Kingdom | ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/ perl-CPAN/ |
Japan | ftp://ftp.lab.kdd.co.jp/lang/ perl/CPAN/ |
Taiwan | ftp://dongpo.math.ncu.edu.tw/ perl/CPAN/ |
South America: Chile | ftp://sunsite.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/ Lang/perl/CPAN/ |
The CPAN sites have a subdirectory labeled /MODULES, which contains references to various Perl modules that are stored at each of the CPAN sites. To access a list of the modules, access the subdirectory at /modules/01modules.index.html. You can find a description of a standard for development for the modules at /modules/00modlist.long.html. The modules are listed by author, category, and by module.
An addition subdirectory to check out is the /SCRIPTS subdirectory at each CPAN site. This subdirectory is itself divided into subdirectories, each of which represents a different category. Each category can have one to many Perl scripts that you can examine, use, and reuse.
An additional site for information on DBI is located http://www.fugue.com/dbi/. You can also subscribe to three DBI mailing lists at this location.
Copyright ©1996, Que Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Making copies of any part of this book for any purpose other than your own personal use is a violation of United States copyright laws. For information, address Que Corporation, 201 West 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290.Notice: This material is from Special Edition, Using Perl for Web Programming, ISBN: 0-7897-0659-8. The electronic version of this material has not been through the final proof reading stage that the book goes through before being published in printed form. Some errors may exist here that are corrected before the book is published. This material is provided "as is" without any warranty of any kind.