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

Back for more of your wisdom! Still extremely new to programming scripts but was wondering if there is any way to run a script on a desktop w/o having to run it on our box. (I'm sure this is a basic that I've just passed over....hmmm imagine that! Moi looking for shortcuts?) I'm currently developing forms for our company (in .html) and have 1 form I absolutely need to have a script run certain mathematical equations. The script I have runs these sequences fine, but for security reasons I don't want employess to have ANY access to our server what-so-ever.

On my knees before you,
Prowebdesigner

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl w/o a server?
by Zaxo (Archbishop) on Jan 18, 2004 at 23:14 UTC
    ...for security reasons I don't want employess to have ANY access to our server what-so-ever.

    You can't mean that literally. You must at least let clients connect to httpd. If you don't accept any data from the client, what do you need cgi for?

    You don't have the luxury of running arbitrary code on a client machine, but (if the client chooses to accept it) you can provide javascript to do local calculation of that kind. Do not assume that all clients will accept. They may trust you no more than you do them.

    How about saying what you want to do in a little more detail? We may be able to help.

    Update: I think you ought to price your services under your own control. Many a shopping cart has allowed users to rewrite prices in their favor. A javascript estimator is not a bad idea, but you need to do the actual pricing on your server.

    After Compline,
    Zaxo

[reply]
      The one form in particular simply calculates labor and parts rates for our company's service department. These quotes for our clients are currently faxed and not sent via http. I chose .html as the base since it allows the presentation the forms need.
      Now, I admit I needed to think about the total design a little better. Recently I've put every ounce of available free time into being a student of .cgi I've closed my eyes to having those local calculations done with basic javascript.
      Wow! (talk about humility)

      Thanks again!
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Re: Perl w/o a server?
by bart (Canon) on Jan 18, 2004 at 23:53 UTC
    IndigoPerl, a Win32 perl which is binary compatible with ActivePerl, comes with a preconfigured Apache webserver. That's a simple way to start experimenting with CGI and mod_perl scripts, on your home PC.
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Re: Perl w/o a server?
by Wassercrats (Initiate) on Jan 18, 2004 at 23:47 UTC
    You could install Perl on the employees' machines and use some kind of a server emulator. See Perl web browsers, which mentions MicroWeb, cg-eye and Jellybean.

    Or use a web hosting service, like FutureQuest, which would allow you to run Perl with your form on their servers.

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