CGI Tutorial

Write the following c++ program, and save it as helloname.cpp in the folder /cgi-bin/ on your site. In this program the GET parameter of the url are filled in in the string data. With the function sscanf the parameter value is gathered.

/**
Hello name! CGI application written with C++

You can provide a parameter to the program by entering an url like
   http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/helloname.cgi?name=jos
The program will output:
   Hello, jos!

Documentation on CGI programming with C++:
   http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/cgic.html
   http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialC++CGI.html
   http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6863
*/

#include 
#include 

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  // tell the server what kind of content you are sending
  printf("Content-Type: text/html\n\n");

  // get data.
  // the data is posted in an url like:
  //   http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/helloname.cgi?name=jos
  char* data = getenv("QUERY_STRING");
  if (data != 0)
  {
    // now get the entered name from the data.
    // if you have multiple parameters you can get something like:
    //    char name[255] = "";
    //    int age = 0;
    //    if(sscanf(data,"age=%d&name=254s", &age, &name) == 2)
    //    ...
    // (Important: when using sscanf with strings, only the last parameter
    // can may be a string, as there is no space after the string and the string
    // will thus be identified wrongly!)

    char name[255] = "";
    if(sscanf(data,"name=%254s", &name) == 1)
    {
      // print something on the screen
      // you can make a complete html file here.
      printf("Hello, %s!\n", name);
    }
    else
    {
      printf("Error: Invalid data. Data must be a string.\n");
    }
  }
  else
  {
    printf("Error: No name provided.\n");
  }

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

2. Compile the program

To compile the program, write a bash script and name it helloname_compile.sh, and save this in the folder /cgi-bin/ too. Give the file permissions 755 (so it can be executed), as explained earlier.

#!/bin/sh

echo "Content-type: text/html"
echo ""

# compile the program
g++ -O helloname.cpp -o helloname.cgi

# show some info on the screen
echo "Compiling finished.
"
echo "<a href='helloname.cgi?name=jos'>Click here</a> to run the program."

CGI programming on Linux

1. Write a program

2. Compile the program

3. Run the program