CGI Programming 201 is available now.
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by Jacqueline Hamilton

This sequel to CGI Programming 101 shows you how to write advanced multi-script CGI projects by creating your own Web message board. This book covers:

• Site Design: Who is your site for? What tasks will visitors perform?
• MySQL Database Design
• Developing a central module for your project
• How to choose, download and install Perl modules from CPAN
• How to filter out HTML tags from messages
• How to limit the number of messages displayed per page
• How to create a password-protected administration area for your message board, with scripts to let you manage the board
• How to expire old messages automatically
• How to convert your message board scripts into a Web Log ("blog") for online journals or news stories

This book assumes you have some CGI programming experience. If you're just starting out, you should pick up a copy of CGI Programming 101 and work through that first.

Table of Contents / Source Code

All of the code from the book can be downloaded here. If you prefer you can also download the complete forums code (8K tarred/gzipped archive). Read the README file for installation instructions.

1. Site Design and Usability

2. Database Design

3. Message Board Module

MyBoard.txt - Message board module

4. Viewing All Forums

ch4index.txt - All Forums
index.txt - All Forums with Message Counts

5. Viewing All Messages in a Forum

ch5forum.txt - View All Messages
ch5forum2.txt - View All Messages with Navigation

6. Posting a New Message

newmsg.txt - Post New Message Form
ch6postmsg.txt - Post New Message
ch6postmsg2.txt - Post New Message, with data checking/tag filtering

7. Reading Individual Messages

message.txt - Read Message

8. Replying to Messages

postmsg.txt - Post Message

9. Tidying Up forum.cgi

ch9forum.txt - forum.cgi - show followup counts
forum.txt - forum.cgi - limit # of topics per page

10. Searching the Forums

search.txt - Search Form
search2.txt - Search CGI

11. Setting Up an Admin Area

adminindex.txt - Admin Index

12. Creating, Editing, and Deleting Forums

admincreate.txt - Create Forums
adminindex2.txt - Admin Index
adminedit.txt - Edit Forums
admindelete.txt - Delete Forums
admindelete2.txt - Delete Forums CGI

13. Deleting and Expiring Messages

adminindex3.txt - Admin Index
admincancel.txt - Cancel Message
admincancel2.txt - Cancel Message CGI
adminexpire.txt - Expire Old Messages

14. Board Administration and Security