Perl for CGI and Web Programming

Perl 5 was one of the first available technologies for automating a web-server, and is still considered one of the most powerful and most cost-effective ones, today. Once you learn the core language, and some HTML and HTTP concepts, programming a simple CGI callback or form handler is very easy and straightforward.

Users are recommended to start by reading Ovid's CGI Course. The other links here may also prove useful.

Tutorials

Ovid's CGI Course

A free CGI Course by Curtis Poe for people who already know a little Perl and a little HTML.

CGI Programming 101

A free online course about CGI in Perl.

Our own CGI Getting Started

In the Wiki.

Interfaces

Apache::ASP

An implementation of the Active Server Pages for Perl on UNIXes. Compatible with the Perl ASP on Microsoft's IIS server, and so provides a cross-platform solution.

HTML::Mason

A portable solution for a dynamic maintenance of a Perl site. Very powerful and feature-rich. Also cross-platform.

Web Frameworks

CGI::Application

CGI::Application is a lightweight and flexible MVC framework for web application development. It doesn't give as much as more complex frameworks, but is still useful for organising your code and using templates.

Catalyst

A flexible web framework for Perl, with many useful modules for it on CPAN, that provide interfaces to many other modules. After learning it, one can build web applications with ease.