Support Manual

CGI Center

Simple CGI Wrapper
Random HTML
Simple Guestbook
Advanced Guestbook
Setting up a Counter
Clock/Countdown
CGI Email
FormMail Clone
Entropy Search
Entropy Banner

CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface and is a standard for running external programs from a web server. Using CGI scripts turn you website into an extremely dynamic website, allowing users to access information in a database and format the results to display on an html page. Rotating banner ads, guest books, countdowns, and a variety of other functions are all made possible thanks to CGI scripts.

Many scripts have been written out ahead of time and are publicly available with a little bit of searching on the internet, so be sure to look at what is available to you. Find a variety of scripts and valuable information here: Resource Index.

The easier scripts to manage are the ones found built into cPanel.

Simple CGI Wrapper

The simple CGI wrapper is a useful tool that will let you run scripts with your userid in the directory /home/username/public_html/scgi-bin. You can access the scripts at the URL http://yourdomain.com/scgi-bin.

You might be asking yourself “Why would I want to set up a simple CGI wrapper? Well, to run scripts that have the same permissions you do (ex: writing, editing, and deleting) would require that directory permissions be set to 777 (anyone can access your directories) and file permissions to 666 (and now they can access your files). Both of these security settings put your website in potential harm’s way.

This safety comes with a price though. If someone manages to gain access to the script, they will have full control of the site, but as long as the script is being held in the default directory (scgi-bin), then there is very little the perpetrator can do.

To set up the CGI-wrapper, simply click on Simple CGI wrapper to set up the scgi-bin directory and install your scripts there.

Random HTML

Random HTML can be a lot of fun for a new or experienced website owner. Random HTML is located in the CGI center and allows users to add multiple lines of html code to be selected at random to be displayed on a particular web page. This feature is useful for those who wish to post information that changes every time the page is accessed. This is useful for quotes, hints, trivia, or even banner rotations.

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If you wish to have a tip of the day or something similar rotating on a particular page, type each tip into the text box and separate them by line. Save your work and insert the following HTML code into the .htm file of your choosing.

<!--#exec cmd="cgi-bin/randhtml.cgi"-->

Now your random text will be displayed on your page. Be sure to hit ctrl+F5 to hard refresh the page.

Simple Guestbook

The simple guestbook is a convenient and easy way to have visitors leave comments on your website. The CGI center provides the necessary code to get the guestbook up and running, with a convenient display of what it would look like at the top of the page.


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If you wish to edit the format of your guestbook, you can do so by clicking on “edit guestbook template.” Only edit this page if you are familiar with html and writing scripts.

Advanced Guestbook

The advanced guestbook uses PHP and a MYSQL database to produce a more sophisticated guestbook for your website. To install the advanced guestbook, click on “advanced guestbook” in the CGI center and select the directory in which to install the advanced guestbook.

Click on the install button, and then click on the available link to edit the access password to the guestbook.

You can manage the guestbook by returning to the advanced guestbook page and clicking on “modify an existing guestbook.”

Counter

The counter is a way of displaying the amount of visits to your site, the time, or the date. There are numerous options available that allow users to customize the counter to their liking.

Time Zone: Choose the time zone that the clock will use.
Time format: Will you use military time or 12 our block of time?
Date Format: The date’s presentation can be adjusted here.
Frame Thickness: This will change how thick the lines are around the counter.
Frame Color: By inserting numerical values for the Red, Green, and Blue variables, you can change the color of the counter frame to a unique shade from anywhere on the color spectrum.
Max Digits: How many digits will be displayed on the counter? This affects the length of the counter.
Style: You have a very broad range if display options for your counter, ranging from very tacky to professional.


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How will you choose to represent your site? *hint: Avoid the large, red, 3D numbers.

Counter Name: You can edit the title found on the counter.


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Color Replacer: You can change all instances of one color to another, which is helpful for those who wish to change the color of the numbers.

Once you are satisfied with your changes, click “make HTML” and copy the code. Place the html code in an appropriate location on your website.

Clock/Countdown

You can create a clock that counts down to a particular event or records the time that has passed using the CGI center clock. The clock uses Java and operates in real time. You can edit variables such as time zone, time format, the border, whether or not the date is shown, the foreground and background color. When you are ready to post it on your website, click on “make HTML” to acquire the code.

The countdown clock is slightly different because it is less customizable than the ordinary clock. Using the options available, a user can set the date and time the clock will count down to on the website.

CGI Email

The CGI center provides the means to create a contact form for your website, however the setup is fairly complex. For an advanced user tutorial, please consider reading MIT’s guide to CGI email..

FormMail Clone

This is one of the most popular form to e-mail scripts available, originally created by Matt Wright. This is a duplication of that code, which consequently may have some aesthetic differences. For access to information on how to customize FormMail, please consult the script archive.

Entropy Search

A search engine can mean the difference between having a good website and an excellent website. With this in mind, CGI center provides entropy search, a script that will create a quick search engine that can help visitors find pertinent information quickly and easily. As your site becomes larger, search engines become more important. Users often attempt to use a search box before manually navigating a website because of time and ease.

*Warning* - The search engine will search all text files on your website, including HTML, PERL, plain text files and others. There isn’t a means of limiting the search engines scope, so if there is sensitive information located on your site, you must encrypt the files or remove them to avoid having visitors accidentally stumble upon the information.

To create the search engine, follow these steps.
1. Click on “rebuild search index.” This will create the necessary index file the search engine uses to find information.
2. Click on “setup search engine.”
3. Copy and paste the HTML code given.
4. Test the script by doing a search.

You can edit the search engine template, however, do not delete the CGI tag as that will cause the script to fail.

Entropy Banner

If you would like to set up a revolving banner image for advertising other websites, information, or products on your website, using Entropy Banner you can upload and delete files, give certain images more priority than others, and set a URL that users can access after clicking on the banner. Before clicking on the “add banners” button, be sure that all of your banners have the same height and width because you risk distorting the website if they are of varying sizes.

When you’re ready to create a rotating banner, follow these steps.

1. Click on “add banners” and upload the desired banners.
2. Go back to the main Entropy Banner page and click on “modify rotation.”
3. On this page you can set the image to low, medium, or high priority, delete it, and set a location that the user is brought to after clicking on the designated banner.


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4. Click on save when you are done.
5. Insert the <!--#exec cmd="cgi-bin/entropybanner.cgi"--> command into the HTML code of your web page.
6. *NOTE* You must save your page with an .shtm or .shtml extension in order for this script to work.

 

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