|
|
|
Is CGI easy to program? Is it powerful?
Are there any other things out there, alternatives to it?
Server-side programming. How about PHP?
PHP started out as a CGI script (written in Perl).
It now can be installed as a standalone CGI script and as an Apache module.
The first one is more portable. The second more efficient.
We install it as a standalone CGI script.
Here's how we do it:
1. Get the distribution from
http://www.php.net (bookmark the site)/u/dgerman/public/php*.tar.gz from my account.
2. Create a directory
and place the compressed archive there./u/dgerman/php-download
3. Uncompress the archive (use gunzip).
4. Unarchive the .tar file.
(Use tar xvf *.tar)
5. Delete the .tar file.
6. Create a directory
where the binary will be installed./u/dgerman/php-install/bin
7. Go into the directory where your archive was unpacked.
For me that's /u/dgerman/php-download/php-3.0.18 as expected.
8. Run configure --help | more to see options.
When ready to install for good run as configure as follows:
./configure \ --prefix=/u/dgerman/php-install \ --enable-discard-path \ --with-mysql=/l/mySQL
9. Check the
manual (here) for why we need the second switch.
10. Type make and wait for the compilation and linkeditting to be done.
11. Type make install and you're ready to go (almost).
You now have the PHP interpreter ready to go, but Apache has no idea about it.
12. Add (or change) the following three lines to httpd.conf:
Note:ScriptAlias /php3/ "/u/dgerman/php-install/bin/" AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3 Action application/x-httpd-php3 "/php3/php"
.conf file if you read the comments.
13. Restart your server. For example:
/u/dgerman/apache/apache_1.3.14/bin/apachectl graceful
13. Now you need some scripts. Here's the simplest one:
(Note the location, and the contents, as well).burrowww.cs.indiana.edu% pwd /nfs/paca/home/user1/dgerman/php-install/bin burrowww.cs.indiana.edu% ls -ld p1* -rwxr-xr-x 1 dgerman faculty 61 Jun 4 13:11 p1.php3 burrowww.cs.indiana.edu% cat p1.php3 #!/u/dgerman/php-install/bin/php <? echo "Hello World!"; ?> burrowww.cs.indiana.edu%
14. Here's a bigger, shorter one:
#!/u/dgerman/php-install/bin/php <? phpinfo() ?>
15. How do you access them?
16. There are many books on PHP.
Let's look at an example:
burrowww.cs.indiana.edu% cat p3.php3
#!/u/dgerman/php-install/bin/php
<?
echo "Hello World!";
echo "How have you been?";
?>
<hr><img src="http://www.cc.columbia.edu/low3.gif"><hr>
<? for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) { ?>
This is a test. <br>
<? } ?>
burrowww.cs.indiana.edu%
17. Here's another one.
#!/u/dgerman/php-install/bin/php
<html>
<head>
<title>PHP Example</title>
</head>
<body>
You are using
<blockquote>
<? echo $HTTP_USER_AGENT ?>
</blockquote>
and you are coming from
<blockquote>
<? echo $REMOTE_ADDR ?>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>Again, the colors are supposed to help you.
18. Here's another one.
#!/u/dgerman/php-install/bin/php
<html>
<head>
<title>Form Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Form Example</h1>
<?
function show_form($first="", $last="", $interests="") {
$options = array("Sports", "Business", "Travel", "Shopping", "Computers" );
if (empty($interests))
$interests = array(-1);
?>
<form action="/php3/p5.php3" method="post">
First name: <input type="text" name="first"
value= "<?echo $first?>"
><br>
Last name: <input type="text" name="last"
value= "<?echo $last?>"
><br>
Interests:
<select multiple name="interests[]">
<?
for ($i = 0, reset($interests); $i < count($options); $i++) {
echo "<option";
if (current($interests) == $options[$i]) {
echo " selected ";
next ($interests);
}
echo "> $options[$i]";
}
?>
</select> <br> <input type="submit">
</form>
<?
}
if (!isset($first)) {
show_form();
} else {
if (empty($first) || empty($last) || count($interests) == 0) {
echo "You did not fill in all the fields, please try again.<p>";
show_form($first, $last, $interests);
} else {
echo "Thank you, $first $last, you selected " .
join($interests, " and "), " as your interests.<p>";
}
}
?>
</body>
</html>Try it here.
19. Finally, see if this one works for you.
#!/u/dgerman/php-install/bin/php
<html><head><title> Calling MySQL </title></head><body>
<?
$db = mysql_pconnect("localhost", "a348", "a348AG")
or die ("Could not connect");
print "Connected successfully.";
?>
</body>
</html>
A348/A548