- CGI Tutorials - Beginners Explanation
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CGI is required to make web pages interactive so you can communicate with your visitors. You don't have to learn CGI, but you have to know what it is and what it does, so you can discuss these matters with your technical guy (your techie).
I'll try to explain what CGI is, but first I have to declare, that I am NOT a techie. So what follows may be somewhat incorrect from a technical point of view, but I just want to explain what is happening. OK?
You can find more excellent CGI information at:
CGI Tutorials and Resources
OK. Take a deep breath and let's go.
- Static situation
- Your webpages can be viewed by anyone who finds you or who knows your URL (Uniform Resource Locator), just a fancy name for Web address (www.domain.com).
The technical process is:
- the visitor types your URL into the browser;
- with this URL the browser tries to contact the host where your pages are via the Internet;
- if connection is established, the host computer answers the request from your browser by sending the first page (index.html or default.html);
- if you have multiple pages on your site and your visitor clicks on a link within your pages, the same request as above goes to the host, only the exact page is specified too.
- the host sends back any page that is requested by your visitors.
That is basically what happens.
Now, suppose you have a guestbook. You want to do something with the data that your visitor enters. That is NOT included in the protocol described above.
You need a special program for these kinds of functions that provides interaction between your visitors (data) and your site.
Read the rest of this tutorial
CGI Tutorials - Click to Continue
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