Setting Up A CGI Script On Your Web Site

Before you set up any scripts you will need some information about your server. You can get this by e-mailing your web hosting provider. It's good to have these on hand before you try to set up a script. You may not need all of the information for each script, but some of the larger scripts demand more information to work. The information you may need is:

Path To Perl This is normally the first line at the top of a ".cgi" or ".pl" (Perl) script. A sample of a Path To Perl is /usr/bin/perl. Most scripts already have the proper Path To Perl included. If the script doesn't work it may be this variable.

Relative Path Which is the relative path to your server, not the HTML path. A sample is: /home/yourlogin/public_html/

HTML Path To Your Server Which is the URL path to your server, for example: http://yourdomain.com

Sendmail Path Which is the relative path to your mail server. A sample is: /usr/sbin/sendmail

SMTP Server Address Which is the path to sendmail on your server. A sample is: smtp.yourdomamin.com (This is rarely used)

Once you have those variables you can set up just about any script available.

Open the scripts that you are instructed to in the "readme" file or "installation" file. These instructions should tell you which scripts need to be set up with these variables. Open these files in a HTML editor, or a text editor. The instructions should also give you the exact location where each variable should be changed or inputed.

Once you have all of the variables set, upload your scripts. They must be uploaded in ASCII, not Binary, if your FTP program makes you choose. Once uploaded your scripts need to have the permissions set in order to work. The instructions should have those permissions for you. Normally a ".cgi" or ".pl" script has it's permissions set to 755.

Your FTP program should allow you to do that somewhere in the program. I use WS_FTP95 LE. To set permissions I simply right click in the right hand window when I am in the server directory where the script is. I click on "FTP Commands" then on "Site". I then type in the field "chmod 755 name of script". If the script is called "abc.cgi" then I will type in "chmod 755 abc.cgi".

It is now time to test the script. The instructions should tell you how to access the script, i.e. "yourdomain.com/abc.cgi". If you get a "Internal Server Error" then you need to go back and check the variables in the scripts and set the permissions, and try uploading the script again.

Read more articles by this author, about this and other subjects, here.

About The Author

Bob Power has been an Internet entrepreneur for longer than he would like to remember. He is currently on a voyage of learning, thanks to his readers, who have asked him to answer questions about topics they want more information on. You can see some of the surprising, and at times exciting results, and variety of topics and paths this has taken him on, or to contact Bob Power please click here.

These articles may be reproduced exactly as shown above. No revisions or changes are permitted.

---

Benefits Of An Accessible Website: Part 1 - Increase In Reach

The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) states that service providers must... Read More

Five Steps to Create Your Software Product with Outsourcing

Many executives and investors are skeptical that software products can... Read More

Newsletter Management Using PHP w/o mySQL for Beginners

Let's begin by setting some limits. If you're like me,... Read More

Planning A Usable Website: A Three-step Guide

A website is like an information flow, with you as... Read More

How to Make Your Own Website For Free

If you like the Internet and surfing through the billions... Read More

Why a CSS Website Layout Will Make You Money

Although CSS layouts have been around for years, they haven't... Read More

Web Site Promotion: How To Advertise Your Website For Profits

Making money with your web site is the dream and... Read More

Sticking To Your Plan

So you have a good idea for a business and... Read More

Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company?

This is a growing concern amongst many business owners. Does... Read More

Making The Business Case For Web Standards

Through the explosive growth of the Web, companies have realized... Read More

How Improving Your Sites Usability Can Increase Your Buyers by 40% and Boost Each Order By 10%!

With all of the factors involved in designing and building... Read More

Why do I Need a Website?

Cost Effective Advertising. Online selling. Increased geopgraphic range. Wider... Read More

Warning: The Truth About Having a Web Site!

If you don't have a web site yet, are thinking... Read More

How To Write More Powerful Online Text

Although there are significant differences among the various types of... Read More

Successful Web Development: 10 Key Elements

There are many elements that are key to successful web... Read More

What is Blogger.com?

In the late 1990's three San Francisco based web developers... Read More

CPanel Fantastico - Features and Benefits

Fantastico is a 3rd-party cPanel add-on and can be purchased... Read More

Top 7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Website

A website provides invaluable advantages for businesses who have one.7... Read More

The Number One Reason Most Websites Fail

Failure, just like success, is measured differently by each and... Read More

Getting One-way Inbound Links: the 5 Major Strategies

With search engines putting a damper on direct reciprocal links,... Read More

Do You Really Need A Website To Succeed

Rosalind wants to share her inspirational poetry with a wider... Read More

You Don?t Have to be Amazon.com to Achieve 12% Conversion Rates!

That's right. According to a recent study by Nielsen/NetRatings, Amazon.com... Read More

2 Key Ways to Make Your Site a Success

If one more business owner tells me their website sucks... Read More

Web Measurement: What You Don?t Know Would Make A Great Book

"What's in it for me?" you ask. "Why should I... Read More

Creating Dynamic Website Content with PHP - MySQL

Fresh website content for your visitors can be of real... Read More

Six Basic Reasons Why Visitors Stay On Your Web Site

1. The first page appears quickly.It's a good way to... Read More

What Hosting Companies Dont Tell You, Could Hurt You?

Did you know that hosting companies overcrowd their servers despite... Read More

Website For The Company Store

If your company own one or more stores, you might... Read More

3 Rules of Website Designing and Layout

Now that you have got your domain name registered, your... Read More

Building Websites with Directory Generator

Directory Generator, a product from Armand Morin and Marc Quarles,... Read More

5 Ways to Build a Website

If you are like me you have wanted to build... Read More

How To Get Profits From Your 404 Page Not Found File

"'Page Not Found' on this Server. Check the URL and... Read More

Writing Effective ALT Text For Images

Anyone who knows anything about web accessibility knows that images... Read More