User manual

Chapter 5
124
Developing Web pages
You can create complex Web pages using any of the standard HTML
editors and the HTML publishing capabilities of many popular desktop
productivity applications.
You can create and link the Web pages on your desktop computer, and
then move them to the appropriate subdirectory in the RaQ 3 through a
file transfer protocol (FTP) application; see “Publishing Web pages
using FTP” on page 125.
CGI scripts
The RaQ 3 supports common gateway interface (CGI) scripts, such as
those written in Perl, C or other languages. If CGI is enabled for your
site (see the Site Settings section of the Site Management screen), you
can add CGI scripts to work with your Web content.
This enables you to develop highly interactive, powerful Web-based
applications by building server-side CGI scripts that generate Web pages
in response to specific user inputs. These applications range from simple
scheduling and conferencing applications to sophisticated electronic
commerce solutions.
You can develop CGI scripts on your desktop machine and then transfer
them to the RaQ 3 by means of any FTP-based application that allows
permission bits to be set to “Executable”.
Use FTP to upload .cgi and .pl files; use ASCII mode to upload CGI
files. Once the file is on the RaQ 3, use your FTP program to make the
script executable. You can also use the telnet command:
chmod 775 <filename>.cgi.
The path to Perl is
/usr/bin/perl. In order for users (other than the
RaQ 3 Administrator) to add CGI files, CGI must be enabled for the
user’s virtual site (see the Site Settings section of the Site Management
screen). CGI scripts must use .pl or .cgi filename extensions in order to
be executed by the Web server.