MySQL and Perl for the Web provides a much-needed handbook for database and Web developers seeking an extensive and detailed guide for using the combination of MySQL and Perl to build dynamic and interactive database-backed Web sites. It shows how to use Perl's DBI database access module, pairing it with with the CGI.pm module that allows Web pages and forms to be generated and processed easily. These tools provide developers with a solid foundation for creating applications that incorporate database content to create dynamic, up-to-date Web sites.
The book employs a practical learn-by-doing approach that demonstrates development techniques by building complete applications, not just fragmentary pieces. It shows what to do at each step of the way during the process of building live, working examples. Applications are fully explained so you can understand how they work and apply the techniques they illustrate to your own projects.
Web programming includes such a diverse range of applications that we can't hope to cover more than a fraction of the possibilities. Nevertheless, there are several recur- ring issues, and the applications in this chapter illustrate a number of useful techniques that you should be able to apply to many of your own projects. Therefore, although useful in their own right, these applications are not just ends in themselves —they serve an illustrative purpose as well. The projects we'll tackle, and some of the techniques they involve, are as follows:
http://www.kitebird.com/mysql-perl/You may find it useful to install each script and try it out first before you read the section that describes how it works.
In this section, we'll write a script, prod_reg. pl , that collects product registrations over the Web. Generally, this kind of registration form has, at a minimum, fields to identify the product and the customer, and our application will confine itself to gathering that kind of information. Many registration forms have additional fields for demographic information such as household income, type of employment, or how the product will be used. We'll skip that stuff;you can add it later if you like.
To process registrations, we need a database table in which to store registration records and an application that collects information from customers and inserts records into the table. The table we'll use looks like this...
1: Getting Connected—Putting Your Database on the Web.
2: Performance Issues.
3: Form Processing.
4: Searching.
5: Session Management and Authentication.
6: Security and Privacy Considerations.
7: E-Commerce Topics.
8: XML.
Appendix A: Obtaining Software.
Appendix B: Other References/Further Reading.
Anonymous
Posted Sat Nov 30 00:00:00 EST 2002
If you want to create refined web-based applications, get this book. Paul DuBois does an excellent job of presenting enormously complex material without putting the reader to sleep. The book explains both how it creates modules for a program, and why a given method was chosen over other available methods. This offers comprehension to add to the reader's technical proficiency, and really sets this book apart from reference books that simply list code along with its result. I reccomend this book highly. If you have read MySQL by Paul DuBois, this is even better because it offers real-world applicability, and gets you coding and creating quickly.
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Posted Tue Feb 12 00:00:00 EST 2002
This is one of the better programming books that I have read in a long time. I am about 3/4 of the way through it and all of the examples are bang on. The best part about this book is all of the different options that are explained for configuring Apache and Perl. If one way wouldn't work, then I was easily able to find another way that did. About the only bad thing was the small code snippets. I would have preferred to see the entire program in the book, instead of having to download it from the web site. All in all, that was a small price to pay for a quality book.
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Posted Sun Nov 04 00:00:00 EST 2001
If you know some Perl and some MySQL, please, DO by 'MySQL and Perl for the Web' by Paul DeBois and figure out how those fancy web applications out there are made and learn how to be able to write one. Paul's 'MySQL and Perl for the Web' touches upon some topics that NONE OF THE BOOKS out there ever covered in so much details. The style and examples are amazing. He makes use of Perl5's Object Oriented features which itself tells you that it's a professional textbook for professional web-programmers. The book teaches you neither Perl nor MySQL from basics. It assumes you already have some basic knowledge of Perl and MySQL. So it starts off at the most fun part without waisting neither his nor the readers' time. Here I'll go over the chapters in case the table of contents don't tell you much (they didn't to me). Chapter 1 and chapter 2 go over some basic things that you need in order to understand and/or try out the examples in the book. Chapter 2 goes over configurting your MySQL and Apache. I believe if you are on a hosting service, this should've been done for you already. It also teaches you to write 'A Simple Web-Based Application - To-do List Maintenance'. Although the application doesn't require a lot of brains to create, but it does cover some basic concepts that you'll be using all the time in web-programming. Chapter 3 gives some information on 'Improving Performance with mod_perl' and how to write scripts that work in mod_perl compiled servers. Chapter 4, 'Generating and Proccessing Forms' goes over 'Form Anatomy' and does introduce some concepts of 'Form Desgin Issues' Chapter 5, 'Writing form-Based applications' is probably the wealthiest chapter of the book. Following sections are available under this chapter: 'Product registration', 'Using Email from Within Applications', 'Running a Giveaway contest', 'Conducting a Poll', 'Storing and Retriving Images', 'Electronic Greeting Cards - Send a Friend a Greeting'. This chapter lasts over 80 pages. Chapter 6, 'Automating the Form-Handling process' introduces some concepts that you can make use of in order to automate the form handling process through the use of MySQL's table metadata, which is available through DESC table_name ( or SHOW COLUMNS FROM table_name ) query. Using his concept I introduced a new module to CPAN.org, MySQL::TableInfo. Chapter 7, 'Performing Searches' covers 'Writing a Form-Based Serch Application' and 'Extending' it. It also introduces the concept of 'Link-Based Navigation'. It also teaches you how to split the results of the search over several pages; suppose you have a result of 100 rows in your search, and you show only 20 results at a page, and provide [previos] and [next] links so that users could navigate over your pages. Neat, isn't it? Cahpter 8, 'Session Management' was the one I have been wating for so long. It goes over some 'State Maintenance Techqniques' used in web applications, then introduces the most favorite one, 'Active Client Identification' method. The sections the chapter covers are: 'State Maintenance Techqniques', 'Implementing Session Support', 'Expiring Sessions', 'Storing User Prefernces', 'Implementing Resumable Sessions' and 'When Sessions aren't enough' Chapter 9, 'Security and Privacy' teaches you the ways of precaution you could take against 'bad guys' ( hackers? ) to insure the security of your site/database. Also shows you how to write a login page to provide access to some sensitive information using the techniques he just mentioned. Chapter 10, 'E-Commerce Applications' covers such topics as Shopping carts, credit card validation and in the end of the chapter completed a fully operating commercial web-site. Although the book concentrates on MySQL, I wrote several applications that make use of Berkeley Database using the same techniques as Paul suggested. I tell you, I lerned a lot....
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Overview
MySQL and Perl for the Web provides a much-needed handbook for database and Web developers seeking an extensive and detailed guide for using the combination of MySQL and Perl to build dynamic and interactive database-backed Web sites. It shows how to use Perl's DBI database access module, pairing it with with the CGI.pm module that allows Web pages and forms to be generated and processed easily. These tools provide developers with a solid foundation for creating applications that incorporate database content to ...