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Want to run Web scripts for guest books or form processing - but don't have a server? Peter Kent explains how even AOL users can access free or cheap pre-built CGIs or have their own hosted elsewhere in part 2 of his Plug-and-Play Net article. Also, editor in chief Glenn Fleishman briefly examines the instant message fad, and in FAQtoids, we explain why the Web is one thing and the Internet another, and how a site-specific search system does its job.
Contents:
Copyright 1997 TidBITS Electronic Publishing. All rights reserved. To subscribe to our weekly list, email <netbits-on@netbits.net>. Thanks to our sponsors for their financial support of NetBITS.
56K Standards Wars Waning? Folklore tells the story of two groups of British and German soldiers during World War I that stopped fighting at Christmas to share a day of peace. Last week, the companies embroiled in the war for 56 Kbps modem standards stopped battling long enough to reach a tentative agreement on which 56K technology will become the standard. In "Speed Jockeys on the Internet: Flying at 56K" (NetBITS-008) we reported that a standard isn't likely to show up until at least September 1998, when the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is expected to make its ruling on the matter.
<http://db.netbits.net/getbits.acgi?nbart=04451>
However, it now appears that the lack of an accepted technology has hurt major combatants such as 3Com/USRobotics and Lucent Technologies/Rockwell Communications enough that they've been motivated to reach a preliminary agreement on a 56K technology standard. Early reports indicate that the final 56K technology will combine elements of the current K56flex and X2 designs. It looks as though the ITU will use this agreement to draft a "determined" (preliminary) standard during its January meeting, which is when modems using the technology are likely to begin appearing. Chances are also good that the ITU will ratify the final standard at its September 1998 meeting. [JLC]
<http://www.lucent.com/press/1297/971205.mea.html>
<http://www.3com.com/news/releases/dec0897c.html>
More Offline -- More readers wrote in with suggestions of how to store Web pages for later offline viewing and printing.
Adam Rosen <abr@oakbog.com> recommends DataViz's Web Buddy, which works much like Web Whacker. It retrieves pages and images, rewrites links, and stores everything for later viewing. It can also be scheduled to download pages at a certain frequency, like every day, or at a specific date and time. It's available for Windows 95 and Macintosh.
<http://www.dataviz.com/Products/WebBuddy/WB_Home.html>
Jon Rosen <jonro@gte.net> suggested MarcoPolo, an Adobe Acrobat-like program that lets you print from any Macintosh application and capture the results in a document that retains the look-and-feel of the original document and can be printed or viewed later.
<http://www.mstay.com/mp35_ab1.html>
Chris Pepper <pepper-list@list.audubon.org> advised that Netscape Composer (formerly Netscape Gold) will download a page and all of its associated graphics for offline editing with a single mouse click.
<http://www.netscape.com/comprod/products/communicator/composer.html>
Windows users, keep those suggestions coming! [GF]
by Glenn Fleishman <glenn@netbits.net>
Suddenly instant messaging is everywhere. The ability to send tiny messages instantly to another person or small group has been available on America Online for many years. The AOL feature lets you find out if someone is online - if they've agreed to be "seen" - and enables you to send them a short text message in something approximating real time - if they've chosen to accept such messages.
Without much warning or reason, instant messaging has proliferating on the Internet. Command-line Unix users could always use the talk command and its variants for this purpose; and, later, talk migrated to the graphical world of the Mac and Windows. But talk wasn't tied in with address books, notifications, offline queuing, or graphical whizziness (or WYSIWYG-ness).
The modern Internet instant messaging application first started appearing just as a sub-feature of Internet telephony. For Internet phone calling to be worthwhile, you need to be able to find out if someone's actually online before placing the call. Despite the hoopla, Internet phoning hasn't turned into The Next Big Thing yet (but give it time).
Instant messaging is much more sensible, however, in that it only requires the ability to send and receive short text messages. It's a cross between the asynchronous nature of email and the sometimes annoying immediacy of a phone call. It's taking off now given both the size of the audience and the increasing amount of time individuals spend online.
Netscape signed a partnership deal with American Online to distribute "Netscape AOL Instant Messenger," which is also bundled with the Communicator 4.04 release. Apparently, it's available only for Windows 95 and 3.1 users. You can download it separately as well.
<http://www.newaol.com/aim/netscape/>
There's also LiveList - in beta for Windows 95/NT - which is a product of OnLive! and partnered with the Four11 directory service. PeopleLink is out for Macintosh and Windows, and is the choice of Well Engaged, a service that builds community/discussion sites. iChat also offers "pager" software for Windows 95/NT and Macintosh.
<http://www.livelist.net/>
<http://www.peoplelink.com/v1/newusers/what.html>
<http://www.wellengaged.com/>
<http://www.ichat.com/download/stepbystep.html>
Of course, none of these systems are interchangeable - each has its own list and system. Some allow you to connect with multiple people; others are mano-a-mano. Some let you login and automatically notify a list of people that you're online. Some will queue messages while you're offline, delivering them when you reappear. All of them convey short text messages back and forth, but some can convey attachments, too.
The real question is: where do you want to be reached today? One of the reasons I like email so much is that I have the flexibility of answering it when I choose. An instant message is - by definition - less ignorable because it's happening right now.
by Peter Kent <pkent@topfloor.com>
Last week in NetBITS-010 we looked at how you can add functionality to your Web site by using a service; this week we'll turn our attention to CGI (Common Gateway Interface) programs, which are often simple little applications or scripts that run on the Web server, and process information submitted from forms in your Web page.
<http://db.netbits.net/getbits.acgi?nbart=04541>
There are hundreds of CGIs available; many are free, many others are low cost. In many cases you can install these programs for yourself. However, installing CGIs can become confusing for those without a single geek gene - but that's okay, because you can often find someone to install a script for you at a very low cost. Someone who knows how to work with CGIs can usually install one very quickly, so you may have to pay as little as $25 or $50 to get a simple script installed in some cases.
Do note that CGIs are somewhat specific to the Web server software used for your Web site. So, if your Web site is running under Apache, the popular free Unix Web server, you can't install a CGI designed to work with WebSTAR on the Mac OS. Within an operating system, most CGIs will work - so a CGI for WebSTAR should work with another Mac OS Web server such as NetPresenz, for instance - but it's not guaranteed.
Where can you find CGIs, and what can they do? There are scores of great CGI sites scattered around, though Selena Sol's Public Domain CGI Script Library, Matt's Script Archive, and The CGI Collection are particularly good:
<http://www.fukada.com/selena/Scripts/>
<http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/>
<http://www.selah.net/cgi.html>
If you'd like to see a list of more CGI libraries, visit my links page, click the Chapter 12 link, then click the Finding CGI Scripts link that appears. This is a very large list (almost 800 links) so it may take a while to load.
<http://www.poorrichard.com/links/>
CGI scripts can be used to do all sorts of wonderful things, including the following:
Send information submitted from a form to a specified email address.
Copy information from a form and save it in a text file. (I give you one of these scripts below.)
Create a guest book or a classified ads page. (They're similar; in both cases information provided by a visitor is displayed in one of your Web pages.)
Search your Web pages.
Verify a credit card number has been entered correctly.
Display text (such as a quote) or an image (such as an advertising banner) selected at random.
Add a visitor's name and email address to a mailing list.
Create a shopping cart and order-taking system.
This is a small list; there are hundreds of great scripts available - many for little or nothing.
Form to File Script -- Here's a simple little script you can download from my Web site that takes the contents of a form and saves it in a text file. To find information about it and download a copy, go to my examples page again and look for the link that says "A simple and effective 'Free Giveaway' promotion."
<http://www.poorrichard.com/examples/>
You can copy this script to your Web server and use it for whatever purpose you want. For instance, you might encourage people to sign up for an announcement list so you can let them know when you change something at your site or when your company releases a new product. Of course, the question is, "do they really care?" People will only sign up if you provide them with something they want or need.
This script is truly simple. I took a sample script that my Web-hosting company had created, then modified it to suit my purposes. Will you be able to install it? If you have permission to set up scripts at your Web server, and if you're just a tiny bit geeky, you should be able to follow the instructions and get it running. On the other hand, if you're the sort of person who hates fooling with computers, and regards them as a necessary evil, you may need to get someone to help you set up the script.
I use this script in giveaways. For instance, I'm giving away free copies of my latest book; visitors to my site fill in the form to win a free copy of the book.
<http://www.poorrichard.com/info/tid.htm>
The form contains two text boxes, one for the name and one for the email address. It also has two option buttons that allow the visitor to choose whether to receive my newsletter. When the visitor clicks the submit button the script takes the information and saves it in a comma-delimited text file, something like this:
"John Smith","jsmith@somesuch.com","Yes"
The "Yes" at the end shows the status of the options buttons; if the visitor chose the Yes button, it says "Yes", if the visitor chose the No button, it says "No".
The "comma-delimited" format is a standard format for database import. In short, you can import this file directly into a database program or spreadsheet, where you can sort out the entries with Yes into a separate list, from which you can create a mailing list.
The AOL Problem Again -- To run a CGI, you need access to the Web server; you must install the script and set it up so that it will run when "called" from a Web page. If you are using a personal pages Web site, though, you can't do that; these sites are designed for plain HTML pages, and they don't want people running scripts.
You can circumvent the problem, though, by running the script on someone else's server. This is the great thing about the Web: a link can connect to or run any other page or script anywhere else on the Web. In the same way that you can create a link from a Web page to another page on a completely different server, you can set up forms to run scripts on other servers. Now we're back to my first "plug-and-play" method, or at least a combination of the two methods - you can find a service to run the CGI for you, or you can find the CGI and install it yourself at a friend's Web site that doesn't have restrictions on CGIs. For instance, there's a free service called CGI Free that allows you to link to a number of scripts they provide, listed below.
FormMailer: Perhaps the most useful, this script mails the contents of a form to the address you specify.
Browser Redirection: Checks to see which browser a visitor is using, then displays the appropriate page.
Random Image: Displays an image, selected at random from a list you provide.
Clock: Displays a clock on your Web page.
Random Link: A link that takes the visitor to a randomly selected Web page.
CountDown to Date: Counts down to a date and time you specify.
Menu Direction: Creates a menu from which the visitor can select a destination Web page.
Finding CGI Help -- If there's no way that you can install a CGI script for yourself (and unfortunately they can get complicated), where do you turn? First, ask your Web hosting company how much they charge to install things. If they can't do it, or are going to charge too much, try Selena Sol's Help for Hire page. Selena is well-known in the CGI world; she has a great library of scripts that she created, along with a page that lists CGI consultants.
<http://www.fukada.com/selena/Scripts/help_found.html>
Some CGI shareware companies sell utilities and include installation, or charge $50 or so for installation. Look around and you'll find plenty of people willing to install your scripts.
CGI-like Systems -- CGIs are not the only way to add interactivity to your Web site. There are a variety of other scripting languages, such as Aestiva HTML/OS, PHP/FI, Un-CGI, and, to some degree, JavaScript. CGIs have several advantages, though. There are script libraries containing hundreds of great programs; fewer are available for these other systems. And CGI scripts are more likely to be able to run on your Web server.
There is one other important system that I should mention, Microsoft FrontPage server extensions. Many Web hosting companies have installed these server extensions, which work in conjunction with FrontPage, Microsoft's Web authoring program.
<http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/wpp/kit/unixinstall.htm>
For instance, a FrontPage user can create a Web-based discussion group in about ten minutes by using a wizard that's built into the program. The discussion group works properly - visitors can read messages and post replies to other messages - as long as the Web site runs on a server that has the FrontPage server extensions installed.
FrontPage can save you a great deal of time - it can create forms that mail messages to you, save form submissions in a text file, set up private areas of your Web site, automatically change an image or block of text at a specific time or date, and so on. Unfortunately, the Macintosh version of FrontPage is currently behind the Windows version and lacks some of the neat tools. Still, it's a good program for creating low-cost Web sites. Is it the best tool? That depends on your situation. If you run your own server, perhaps not. However, if, like hundreds of thousands of others, you serve your Web site via a Web hosting company, then FrontPage is hard to beat if the hosting company has installed the server extensions. There are currently almost 500 such companies. In essence, FrontPage provides a way to add interactivity to your site - all this CGI stuff - without having to install CGIs.
Web Sites Made Cheap and Easy -- I've barely scratched the surface with this look at the plug-and-play Web site. There are all sorts of great things you can do at your Web site with minimal cost and little effort. It's just a matter of a little research. If you decide you need to add something to your Web site, do some digging around in the search sites, in the CGI libraries mentioned above, and in my links page. You may be surprised at what you find. Just remember, Web sites that work for you don't have to be expensive!
[Peter Kent is the author of "Poor Richard's Web Site: Geek-Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site." Win a free copy at the Web page below.]
<http://www.poorrichard.com/info/tid.htm>
Question: What's the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web? Michael Battig <jbattig@efn.org> writes from Glenn's home town of Eugene, Oregon, with that surprisingly common question.
Answer: The Internet is a set of networks that exchange data with each other using a standard set of protocols - languages that each machine can speak. In previous issues of NetBITS, we've addressed how the protocols talk to each other, with high-level protocols (like the languages spoken by mail servers and Web servers) broken down into pieces and delivered by lower-level protocols over physical media, like copper wire and fiber optic cable.
<http://db.netbits.net/getbits.acgi?nbart=04511>
<http://db.netbits.net/getbits.acgi?nbart=04502>
The Internet is both the physical set of machines that are interconnected (inter-network is the source of the term Internet) and - in the form of the Internet networking model - the protocols that drive traffic around it.
The World Wide Web is not so much a thing as it is a protocol. There is no "set" of machines that are the Web; rather, there are millions of individual machines that all use the same technology to deliver information. The Web is made up of HTML, a markup language for formatting pages, and a number of scripting and programming languages and security methods that any given site might or might not use, like Java, JavaScript, Active Server Pages (ASP), SSL, SHTML, and others.
All Web servers talk to Web browsers using HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol). HTTP defines how a Web server and browser interact; we discuss this in some depth in Jeff Carlson's cookies article in NetBITS-006. HTTP is just one of several high-level protocols that applications use to talk to each other, like SMTP, the language that mail servers use to exchange email. [GF]
<http://db.netbits.net/getbits.acgi?nbart=04466>
Question: How do I make a Web site searchable? Beverley Neff <bneff@cariboolinks.com> writes: "I was on a Web page recently that had a search form to search that Web site. They were using Excite, but when I went to the Excite home page I couldn't find any information. Could you tell me more about what is required to make a Web site searchable?"
Answer: Adding search capabilities for a particular Web site, as opposed to an Internet-wide search engine like Excite, requires three separate pieces: an index builder, a search engine to examine the index, and an interface to compose queries that are sent to the search engine.
Internet-wide search engines use programs called spiders or robots to trace links, but a search system for a particular site can read the files directly out of the local directory structure. The index builder essentially creates a concordance of all Web pages you point it at - that is, a list containing all words in all pages listed just once, and pointers along with each word noting what page the word appears on.
You can add some complexity by using an index builder that also stores proximity information. Each word not only has a list of pages it appears on, but a matrix of other words it appears near and on which pages. These matrices make it easier to find complex matches, like "all pages which contain gold and luster within 10 words of each other."
The index is built as a separate step, often overnight. For sites that change frequently, some software allows incremental additions to an index; others always require the entire index to be rebuilt each time. For large sites - think Microsoft - enormous resources have to be devoted for the processing and storage of indexes.
The search engine handles queries, reading entries from the index and trying to find pages that match the conditions. The interface to the search engine is often a Web form that explains how search queries have to be formulated. If you look at AltaVista, you can see both extremes. Their simple search lets you enter a number of keywords. If you enter just keywords, it finds all pages on which any of the words appear. Using a plus sign in front of any word means that the search engine only matches pages in which the keyword appears.
AltaVista's advanced search lets you construct queries that include proximity and Boolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT. So you can write a query like, "adam NEAR engst AND NOT tidbits," which would return a match on all pages which contain Adam Engst's name (where Adam and Engst are within a few words of each other) but don't contain the word TidBITS anywhere. (Capitalization is usually ignored.)
Indexing and search software can be expensive, and there are products available for every platform. Unix systems often rely on the currently freeware Excite for Web Servers (EWS), which also runs under Windows NT. Another cross-platform solution is Maxum's Phantom, which runs under Windows NT and Macintosh. [GF]
<http://www.excite.com/navigate/home.html>
<http://www.maxum.com/Phantom/>
[Please send us any and all Internet questions whose answers have evaded you to <faqtoids@netbits.net>, and include your full name and email address. Questions may be edited for content and length. We cannot guarantee publication or a reply.]
Non-profit, non-commercial publications and Web sites may reprint or link to articles if full credit is given. Others please contact us. We do not guarantee accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication, product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their companies. NetBITS ISSN 1096-4908.
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