CGI

Web Design > CGI

CGI allows you to create pages that will let a user send you information via a fill out form, search a database, and more. CGI is a standard for running programs via a web server. It specifies how the program and the Web must interact, therefore it acts as a Common Gateway Interface between them.

For security reasons, we don't allow users to install CGI scripts on our server. However we have a number of useful scripts already available. They include scripts for receiving input from a form, searching text and more.

List of Approved CGI Scripts for Use at Columbia

Basic Form Fields

All forms must start with the tag <form> and end with the tag </form>. Within the <form> tag you specify the CGI script it must use. For example, if you are using our generic-inbox script for a page on our Web server, your <form> tag would look like this:

(For more about the specifics of the generic-inbox script, see its instructions.)

Code	Renders	Be sure to ...
<input type="text">		include a name <input type="text" name="address">
<input type="checkbox">		include a name that is unique for each "checkbox" in a set <input type="checkbox" name="tea"> and a value that is the same <input type="checkbox" name="tea" value="yes"> <input type="checkbox" name="milk" value="yes">
<input type="radio">		include a name that is the same for each "radio" button in a set <input type="radio" name="tea"> and a value that is unique for each "radio" button <input type="radio" name="tea" value="black"> <input type="radio" name="tea" value="green">
<textarea> </textarea>		include a name <textarea name="comments"> </textarea>
<input type="submit">		give it a value if you want control over how the button is labeled. Otherwise you get the browser's default label. so you could also say <input type="submit" value=" send it ">

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