anikng has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hellow Monks, I saw some posts similar to my following doubt. But i couldnt figure it out. So kindly help me (am not an expert). I have a front end html (with buttons) and a backend PERL cgi script. The code is correct and tested in another windows system. Now, i placed two files in www folder (under var) in Ubuntu 14.04. But when i clcik the button, instead of runing the cgi, script itself is displayed. Someone kindly help me what changes to be made (in a simple way). I also attach the contens of front end html and backend test.cgi 

Front end.html
<html>
<body>
<h3> <center>TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR FAMILY</center></h3>

<form action="/var/www/test.cgi" method="GET">
<input type="submit" value="ABC">
</form>
</body>
</html>

[download]

test.cgi, 

#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser warningsToBrowser);
$q=new CGI;
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";



@field=$q->param();

$name=$q->param("value");

print<<"OUTPUT";
                        
                <html>
                <head>
                <title>     FAMILY SELECTION    </title>  </head>     
+           
                <body>              
                <img src="/var/www/bb.jpg" size=100">
                <br><br><br><br><br>
                <center><table border=0>
                <tr><td>                        
                </td></tr>
                </table></center>
                </body>
                </html>
OUTPUT

[download]
Thanks, anikng

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: CGI SCRIPT ITSELF IS DISPLAYED
by skx (Parson) on Sep 21, 2014 at 08:18 UTC

    There are two things wrong here:

    • The CGI script http://example.com/test.cgi is not being executed.
    • The action-element of your FORM is pointing to the wrong thing.

    To solve the first problem you need to consult your webserver documentation, there are two ways you can go here - either configure the webserver to execute *.cgi, regardless of location, or copy the script into your cgi-bin directory - which will probably be /usr/lib/cgi-bin, since you mention ubuntu.

    If you want to configure CGIs to be globally executed you should start by looking at "a2enmod cgi", or similar.

    Secondly your form-action points to /var/www... which is a file reference and not a URL reference. It hsould be updated to point to /test.cgi, or /cgi-bin/test.cgi as appropriate. (You have the same issue with the image you try to print from your CGI-script. You need to learn the difference between a file-path and a URL-path.)

[reply]
Re: CGI SCRIPT ITSELF IS DISPLAYED
by Corion (Patriarch) on Sep 21, 2014 at 07:59 UTC

    Is your webserver configured to execute the CGI file? Are the file permissions on the server set so that the file can be executed?

[reply]
Re: CGI SCRIPT ITSELF IS DISPLAYED
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 21, 2014 at 09:14 UTC
[reply]
      Thanks for the suggestion..!! I managed to run the cgi script on my server by configuring the file (1./etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf 2./etc/apache2/apache2.conf) . However, still am not able to generate a figure. Instead, a blank layout is shown.I know that it is something related to file pointing the figure.Kindly suggest me. anikng

      Some information, My html file is in var/www/html folder. CGI script is under usr/lib/cgi-bin (i use this path to the configuration file for cgi configuration). 

      <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h3> <center>TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR FAMILY</center></h3>

<form action="http://localhost/cgi-bin/test.cgi" method="GET">
<input type="submit" value="NAC">
</form>
</body>
</html>

      [download]
      #!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser warningsToBrowser);
$q=new CGI;
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

@field=$q->param();

$name=$q->param("value");

print<<"OUTPUT";
                        
                <html>
                <head>
                <title>TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR DATABASE </title>  
                </head>                
                <body>                    
                <img src="file:///var/www/html/index.jpeg"  height="42
+0" width="420"> 
                <br><br><br><br><br>
                <center><table border=0>
                <tr><td>                        
                </td></tr>
                </table></center>
                </body>
                </html>
                 OUTPUT

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        <img src="file:///var/www/html/index.jpeg"  height="420" width="420">

        [download]

        That's not how HTTP works with HTML. Every resource generates its own HTTP request. You will need to serve the image via HTTP too, instead of using the file:// protocol.

        You will need to use a file path that is relative to your CGI script. Maybe

        <img src="index.jpeg"  height="420" width="420">

        [download]

        already is enough, because the image lives in the same folder as your HTML page.

        This has very little to do with Perl. I recommend you try it out with a static HTML page and a static image file first.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

        However, still am not able to generate a figure. Instead, a blank layout is shown.I know that it is something related to file pointing the figure.Kindly suggest me. anikng

        Go back and read more about urls, file:... is not http://localhost

[reply]
Re: CGI SCRIPT ITSELF IS DISPLAYED
by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Sep 22, 2014 at 14:24 UTC

    This isn’t a Perl specific issue ... it is, literally, a web-in-general FAQ.

    The root cause of your problem is that there is no AddHandler directive (perhaps in an .htaccess file ...) which instructs Apache that a reference to this particular file (-type), in this particular directory, means that the content of the file should be executed, rather than served as though it were mere-text.

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