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Guestlist Form and CGI
A simple way of interacting with clients that visit a web site is to
allow them to sign a guestlist and leave some comments.
A guestlist form and custom CGI can be designed to facilitate such a task.
Installation
To install the comments form and CGI on your Virtual Server you will need to
do the following.
-
Install the Guestlist and Guest Entry Form
You will need to download the Guestlist HTML source
and Guestlist Entry Form HTML source and store it somewhere
in your ~/www/htdocs directory structure.
The Guestlist Entry Form can be customized by simply changing the values assigned to these
variables:
-
MAXENTRIES is the number of entries that will be displayed
in the guestbook. For example, if MAXENTRIES is set to "100", only the latest
100 entries in the guestbook will be displayed. If MAXENTRIES is set to
negative or zero (or not included in the form at all), no entry
restriction will be applied.
-
PATHNAME represents the pathname of the guestlist file relative to
the ~/www/htdocs directory of your Virtual Server.
For example, if your guestlist file was named guestlist.html and was
located in a subdirectory guest of your ~/www/htdocs directory, you
would set PATHNAME to be "/guest/guestlist.html". If the file
guestlist.html is located in your ~/www/htdocs directory, you would set
PATHNAME to be "/guestlist.html".
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ADDRESS should be set to the e-mail address where a copy of guestlist
entries which include a return e-mail address are sent.
Be sure that the
variable name (MAXENTRIES, PATHNAME, PATHNAME, etc)
for each input field in the Guestlist Entry Form is not altered.
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Install the Guestlist CGI
Connect to your Virtual Server via Telnet or SSH
and issue the following command.
% vinstall guestlist
This will install the guestlist.pl and util.pl files into your
~/www/cgi-bin/library/guestlist directory.
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Customize the Appearance of the Guestlist CGI
Two subroutines in the util.pl
file are used to print out header and footer information. These
functions are print_header_info and
print_footer_info. Feel free to modify these functions
such that the CGI outputs pages that are in synch with the motifs
of the rest of your site.
Example
Once you have completed the installation successfully, you will have a
working guestlist form like the one shown below (go ahead and test it).
Guestlist
Guestlist
Thank you for taking the time to sign our guestlist.
Feel free to add your name, E-mail address, and comments to the guestbook
by entering them in the form below.
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