Gateway Programming

Table of Content

Principles of Gateway Programming

• Transmission Control Protocol - Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
• Why Do We Need HTTP?
  • Filling the Collaborative Vacuum
• A Closer Look at the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP)
• What is the Common Gateway Interface ?
• The Flow of Data Using the Common Gateway Interface
• A Brief Introduction to Data Passing and Methods
  • Environment Variables
  • Standard Input
• CGI: An Expanding Horizon
• Typical Hardware And Server Software Platforms
• Typical CGI Programming Languages
• CGI Guidelines and Principles And Once The Coding Starts
• Software and Hardware Platform of the Gateway
  • Programming Section Examples
• Principles ofr Gateway Programming Check

Gateway Programming Fundamentals

• Understanding Multipart Internet Mail Extensions
  • MIME in the CGI Environment
• Understanding Evnvironment Variables
  • Variables That Contain HTTP Information about the Server and Do Not Depend on the Client Request
  • Variables That Are Dependent on the Arrival of a Client Request
• Server-Side Includes
• Ready to Program: The Initial Steps
• From Client to Server to Gateway and Back
  • How the Client Can Output Data
  • Before the Server Passes the Data: Encoding
• How the Server Passes the Data to the Gateway Program
• Code Sample: The "Print Everything" Script
• Gateway Output
• Manipulating the Client Data with the Bourne Shell
• Manipulating the Client Data with Perl
• To Imagemap or Not to Imagemap
  • Code Walk-Through: bimodal.pl
• An Integrated E-Mail Gateway Application
• Discussion of the Resume Application
• CGI Debugging Techniques
• Gateway Programming Fundamentals Check

Gateway Programming I: Programming Libraries and Databases

• Rules of Thumb in Gateway Programming
• Perl Programming Libraries
  • form_init
  • nyu_trailer
  • html_header
  • home
• An Overview of the Relational Database Model
  • Binary Searches
  • Binary Search Example I: Simple Rolodex Application
  • Binary Search Example II: Corporate Filings Lookup
  • Observations About formlynx.pl.b
• A Double Binary Search with a Little State Thrown in
  • Comments About zacksnew.pl
  • Code Discussion: zack_tick.pl
• Final Binary Search Example: The Partial Company to Ticker to Filing Application
  • Company to Ticker to Filing Application Walkthrough
  • Code Observations: zack3.pl
• Perl Version 5
• Perl and Relational Database Packages
• Illustra - An Unusual RDBMS
  • Code Discussion: sql_wrapper.pl
  • Observations About sql_loss.pl
  • Database Tuning
• Pros and Cons of Relational Databases on the Web
• Gateway Programming: Libraries and Databases Check
• Additional Code

Gateway Programming II: Text Search and Retrieval Tools

• Philosophies of Text Search and Retrieval on the Web
  • Introduction to WAIS
• Using WAIS to Index a Data Archive for the Web
  • Forms-Based WAIS Query Examples
  • The Standard wais.pl Interface
  • Some Observations About wais.pl
  • Debugging the WAIS Interface
  • Another Way to Ask a WAIS Query
  • Observations About waissearch.pl
• freeWAIS-sf
• Building a freeWAIS-sf WAIS Index: HTML Extensions
  • wais-8k.pl
  • Code Discussion: wais-8k.pl
  • Pros and Cons of WAIS and WAIS-Like Packages
• Introduction to Glimpse
  • Glimpse Indexing
  • A Practical Test of Glimpse
  • Building a Web Interface to Glimpse
  • Code Walkthrough: glimpse.pl
  • Pros and Cons of Glimpse
• Harvest
• Text Search and Retrieval Tools Check

Scripting for the Unknown: The Control of Chaos

• Brdging the Unknown by Maintaining State
• Using the QUERY_STRING Variable
  • Using PATH_INFO
  • Form Variables
• Combining Methods of Maintaining State
• Generating Graphics at Runtime
  • Image File Format
• Access Counters
  • Gnuplot and Server Stats
  • NetPBM
• An HTML Form to Make Buttons
• gd1.1.1
• Using Expect to Interact with Other Servers
• Retrieving the Web Data from Other Servers
• Scripting for the Unknown Check

Transaction Security and Security Administration

• Cryptographic Terminology
  • Data Encryption Standard (DES)
  • RSA Public-Key Cryptography
  • Kerberos
  • Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and Privary-Enhanced Mail (PEM)
  • NCSA httpd and PGP/PEM
  • Riordan's Privacy-Enhanced Mail (RIPEM)
  • Netscape Communication Corporation's Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
  • Secure NCSA httpd
  • Comments on the S-HTTP Protocol and SSL from a Developer's Perspective
• Electronic Commerce - Security Considerations
  • NetCheque and NetCash
  • First Virtual
  • Digicash's E-Cash
• Comments on Electronic Payment Systems
• Security Pitfalls of CGI Programming
  • Web Administrative Security Overview
  • NCSA's htpasswd Scheme
• NCSA's "Host Filtering" Method
• Transaction Security and Security Administration Check

Gateway Programming Language Options and a Server Modification Case Study

• Perl 5
• Python
• Tcl, Expect, and Tk
• Case Study: Modification of the Server Imagemap Software
  • Technical Discussion of the Code Changes to imagemap.c
• Ten Commandments for Web Developers
• Programming Language Options and Server Modification Check

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