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Home >> Articles >> Programming and Scripting >> Do It Yourself CGI Scripts
Author: Rosemarie Wise
Added: December 31, 1969
Views: 1,971
Rating: 10/10
While is it true that hosting your own scripts gives you much more control over interactivity at your site - it can also be quite a challenge to install, but is well worth the effort if you can succeed. It is one thing to want to host your own script, but it is quite another to find one and then to actually get it installed and working.
Finding a Script
One of the largest problems you are likely to encounter is to find a script that will actually run on the server that your site is hosted on. This is why it is important to find out as much information as possible about your server before you go script hunting - you will find it much easier if you can find out.
- Server type - is it Windows, Linux, Unix?
- Server software - is it Apache, Microsoft ISS, Xitami etc?
- Mail program - is sendmail (Unix) or blatmail (NT) installed, if not can you use SMTP?
- Are Server Side Includes (SSI) supported?
- What languages can you use? Perl, Python, C++ etc.
- What file formats are supported? ASP, PHP, Cold Fusion etc.
While it may not be possible to find out all the information listed above - it will make your search for compatible scripts much easier the more information you can discover about your host server. If you are able to use several types of script, for example you can use both Active Server Pages and Perl on your server, then you may want to decide upon a preference to speed up your search.
There are plenty of online resources that provide free scripts for you to download for use on your own server, with several sites that concentrate on providing links to such sites as well as a quick description on what you might find there. Such resource sites provide a wealth of information and provide an easy and quick way to compare scripts and narrow down your search based on cost and server compatibility. My own personal favourite for finding Perl scripts in particular is The CGI Resource Index - but I'm sure there are also many others available even thought this is the largest I have found.
Installing CGI scripts
A lot of the better free scripts available will come complete with all the files you need and rather comprehensive instructions for installation, it is always a good idea to actually read all the README and help files before you even attempt to install the script. Many scripts also have some sort of support available to those that really need it, but don't forget that the script writers time is limited and so such support is usually only available in the form of a public forum at the site where you got the script.
Few scripts will work "out of the box" - so you should expect to have to edit some of the scripts or configuration files before they will work on your server. You do not require any specialist equipment to edit ASP or Perl scripts; Notepad (or Wordpad for larger scripts) is more than adequate for the job. At first, you should concentrate on getting the script to work on your server - don't waste your time trying to customise it straight away because you may inadvertently cause errors and waste your time.
In my own experience I have found it much easier to install scripts on a Window NT server (because I don't need to worry about permissions) - however I have also found the number of scripts that will work on an NT server much more limited. Whatever script you choose, make sure that it is suitable for your server (use your checklist) - this will dramatically increase your chances of getting the script to work, particularly if you pay special attention to the installation instructions!
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