How This Book Is Organized
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Chapter 1, Introduction to MySQL and Perl, provides an overview of what you can expect to accomplish with the combination of MySQL and Perl in a Web-based environment.
Chapter 2, Getting Connected Putting Your Database on the Web, shows how to create the database we ll use for the applications developed in this book and provides background material on writing Perl scripts. It introduces the CGI.pm module for Web scripting and the DBI module for interfacing with database servers. It also shows how to write a simple Web application for data entry, editing, and searching.
Chapter 3, Improving Performance with mod_perl, discusses an Apache module that you can use to dramatically improve the performance of your Perl scripts, as well as issues to be aware of when running scripts in the mod_perl environment.
Chapter 4, Generating and Processing Forms, discusses how to use CGI.pm to create and initialize forms, and how to extract and interpret information from forms that users fill in and submit.
Chapter 5, Writing Form-Based Applications, shows several ways to make your scripts more interactive using forms, and how to use MySQL to maintain the information you gather that way. It covers data entry and validation, image uploading and display, and polling. Along the way, it also shows how to create and send email from within scripts, and how to run scripts on a scheduled basis under cron.
Chapter 6, Automating the Form-Handling Process, shows how to ask MySQL for information about a database table s structure and use that information to automatically generate field elements corresponding to the table s columns. It also describes how that information can help validate contents of submitted forms. Use of lookup tables for form generation and validation is covered as well.
Chapter 7, Performing Searches, describes how to create search forms, construct database queries based on search parameters that users submit, and display search results.
Chapter 8, Session Management, discusses state management how to keep track of information across multiple requests from the same client so they can be treated as a session. It describes various client-side and server-side state management techniques, methods for uniquely identifying clients, and how to use MySQL to store and expire session information.
Chapter 9, Security and Privacy Issues, discusses how to run a database-backed Web server in a secure fashion. There are a lot of ways to get burned. You should know what they are and what you can do about them. The chapter covers the dangers presented by remote users who use (or abuse) your applications, by other local users who have access to your server host, and by people who spy on your network.
Chapter 10, E-Commerce Applications, develops a miniature Web site oriented toward commercial activity. It discusses online catalog presentation, ordering techniques, and credit card processing. It also covers how to use transactions, to prevent partial failure of multiple-statement updates from leaving your database in an inconsistent state.
Appendix A, Obtaining Software, lists the software you need to make effective use of this book, and where to get it.
Appendix B, References and Further Reading, suggests sources of additional useful information about the topics discussed in this book.
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