You could use something like

http://www.mydomain.com/index.cgi/loadpage/10
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Let's assume you have a CGI::Application module called My::App, and that your index.cgi looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use My::App;

My::App->new->run;
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In this situation, you would need a new instance script for every new application module. CA::Dispatch takes that pain away by giving you the means to write a single dispatch script for all your appllications.

An example for your case might be:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI::Application::Dispatch;

    CGI::Application::Dispatch->dispatch(
        prefix  => 'My',
        default => 'App',
    );
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By using more of CA::Dispatch's power, you can take that even further:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI::Application::Dispatch;

    CGI::Application::Dispatch->dispatch(
        prefix  => 'My',
        table     => [
            '/:rm/:data?' => { app => 'App' },
        ],
    );
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The final step would be to get rid of the "index.cgi" part in your URL, but for that you do need to edit your web server config. I generally use mod_rewrite (as I do a lot of mappings), but a suitable <Location> section would suffice as well. The CGI::Application::Dispatch documentation has some examples for you.

By the true definition of REST, that's not a pure REST interface. One of the principles of REST is to not use any verbs in your resource name because the HTTP request is the verb.

To make your app truly RESTful, use page/10 instead of loadPage/10. An HTTP GET request should signify "load", HTTP DELETE for "delete", and so forth.

There is some dissonance on whether POST or PUT should be used for insert or update, but the idea is that the HTTP request provides the "verb", not the resource name.

And then, I haven't even touched on mime-types :)

Here's some more info: Wikipedia article on REST

You're quite right about all of that, and I have applied those principles to my REST interface at work. But I didn't say the examples for the OP were REST :-)

CGI::Application::Dispatch has some extra features to make REST easier to implement (by attaching the HTTP verb to the runmode name, so you'd have page_GET, page_DELETE etc. as the real run modes, dispatched from the single /page url). I don't think it's relevant to the OP's question though, and would probably confuse the issue.

By the way, I really, really like the REST approach. It encourages a clear, uncluttered implementation on the backend, and it's very simple to integrate the resulting resources into other applications. Compared to SOAP, REST is a lot cleaner ;)

I also found the columns on xml.com helpful in gaining a more practical understanding of the REST philosophy.

http://www.mydomain.com/?loadPage/10/
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and process $ENV{QUERY_STRING} yourself, after adding your cgi to DirectoryIndex.

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}

Granted, I'm suggesting something else than CGI::Application about which I know little. I do not know the scope or size of what you already have running, so YMMV.

You could look into HTML::Mason and its concept of dhandlers and autohandlers.

Using a dhandler, you can use the URLs of the form you indicated, while passing parameters with those URLs to a single script/component. For example: a URL of the form http://example.com/archives/753/pdf only requires a suitable dhandler in /archives/ that obtains the document with ID 753 and displays the PDF file stored for it.

Update: Added simple day-to-day example

I especially enjoy this aspect of Mason. Not the reason I'm using it, and I'm not sure the overhead would be worth it for just this feature, but it's worth a look.

Mason does this by jumping in and handling certain URLs, then parsing them to try and find the best match for the request. No need to state parameters explicitly with a ? or reveal the handler's name in the URL. It can even be configured in a local .htaccess file if you're working with apache in an environment where you don't have access to the httpd.conf.

Assuming apache, here's an example .htaccess:

order allow,deny
allow from all

Options -Indexes -ExecCGI

#Server root relevant path to handler script
Action my-handler /test/my_handler.pl

SetHandler my-handler

AddHandler default-handler .html .gif .jpg .png

<FilesMatch "my_handler.pl$">
 Options +ExecCGI
 SetHandler cgi-script
</FilesMatch>
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And an example my_handler.pl- not very useful as is, but dispatch with your new parameters as you like:

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT
use strict;

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

print "<p>Request_URI contained: " . join( ' ', map {"[$_]"} split '/'
+, $ENV{REQUEST_URI}) . "</p>\n"; 
print "$_ => $ENV{$_}<br />\n" for sort keys %ENV;
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Don't forget that the parameters will be encoded...

"One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for the myriad instances and applications?"
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

#start the engine
RewriteEngine on

#this needs to be set to allow the URL manipulation
Options +FollowSymlinks

#the directory the manipulations will take place on
RewriteBase /

# mod_rewrite allows you to use Regular Expressions
# to define the manipulations

RewriteRule ^(.*\.html)$ cgi-bin/foo.cgi?call=$1
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see: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/misc/rewriteguide.html

I know you can use mod_rewrite for this but I don't have access to it

In index.cgi:
...

my $q = new CGI;
my $path = $q->url(-relative => 1, -path=>1);
# $path = "index.cgi/loadPage/10"
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Most web hosting servers have the mod_rewrite installed and running for this stituation. If not ask then to install it and set mod_rewrite directives in the .htaccess file.