Form Action

[tomthecarrot]

Hello. I am a newbie to HTML and I am trying to make a form. The problem is that every HTML tutorial website I look at has a form with:

action="whatever.cgi"

but they don't give me the code to that CGI file. What am I supposed to do with a CGI file?

action="whatever.cgi"

but they don't give me the code to that CGI file. What am I supposed to do with a CGI file?

From WIKI:
"A CGI file is a Common Gateway Interface Script file. Learn how to open a CGI file or convert a CGI file to another file format."

So CGI is a general specification for a file that can handle "something".
Personally I use php, which is a step "above" HTML. You can also use Perl, Python, C, or other programming languages.

This means that as a newbie you'll probably have problems knowing what to do. I suggest that the first you do is to learn HTML fairly well, and then php, which is a modern script language which executes efficiently and doesn't need compilation (like for instance C). The only drawback of php compared to a "proper" programming language is that debugging is rather clumsy -- but some debugging aids exist.

In order to not leave you in the dark I'll give you a simple example:

HTML:
<form method='post' action='action.php'>
<input type='text' name='username' value='Name here!' size='24' />
<input type='submit' value='Click this button to update!' />
</form>

php, file "action.php":
<?php
if (isset ($_POST[username])) $name = $_POST[username];
// Process "$name" further.
?>

Remember, this is just the basic!

[tomthecarrot]

Thanks for the HTML code, now I need the CGI file code as well. I don't know how to do a form action in CGI. Thanks.

[JugglerDrummer]

An html websites would give you the html side of things. If you want to do the server side part, look at some php/asp.net or other server side form tutorials. :D

[almostbob]

Well as a tutorial exercise,
go to big nose bird http://bignosebird.com/cgi.shtml and get the all-in-one form processing script,
its very well commented and documented within the code, so you can point your form at this form handler and see/learn what it is doing.
cgi scripts are text and you can read them with your text editor

Thanks for the HTML code, now I need the CGI file code as well. I don't know how to do a form action in CGI. Thanks.

CGI is a generic term. You can do it in perl, python or php. There's no CGI language (AFAIK).

php does the job quick and easy. The key is in the three lines I gave you. I suggest you learn php before you go any further with this. You can, however, find scripts on the Net that will do much more than my little snippet. I just showed you how to fetch a value.

BTW; php etc. is somewhat off-topic for this forum. :)