NOTE: This information
is for netINS Basic Showcase Accounts only. If you have a netINS
Hosting Account account, please refer to netINS
Hosting Support
With CGI scripts, you can perform
a variety of useful functions with your Showcase account. This
guide explains the specific actions that you need to take to
use CGI scripts with your Showcase account. This document is
not a tutorial on writing CGI scripts or programming in any language.Permissions
CGI scripts can be stored anywhere within your .web subdirectory
of your home directory. They must end with a .cgi or a .pl extension
in order to work properly. You can use your FTP client software to
make the necessary changes to file permissions (CHMOD). For assistance
in using CHMOD, see if your client is listed here
Writing to Files
The web server is set up to execute scripts with your username,
making the .web directory writable in all areas. There is nothing
you need to do to enable this functionality as it is part of the
server.
Scripting Languages
CGI scripts must (by definition) be written in some kind of scripting
language. You can choose which scripting language to use by modifying
the first line of your script.
The first line of your script must be the characters "#!" followed
by the full pathname of the scripting language interpreter. Several
scripting languages are available for use in CGI scripts:
There are a number of other neat tricks that can be done using server-side
includes, which is how the access counter is done. With a little
bit of programming (sorry, no ready-made solution is available
at this time) you should be able to keep track of where requests
are coming from.
Keep in mind that in the past files using the .html file
extension was acceptable for web pages using SSI. This is no longer
the case. The filename MUST end in .shtml in order to use
server side includes
CGI Script Troubleshooting
To help with troubleshooting CGI scripts, you can view a recent
portion of the Web
Server's Error Logs.