CGI Programming with Perl, 2nd Edition

Chapter 14. Middleware and XML

CGI programming has been used to make individual web applications from simple guestbooks to complex programs such as a calendar capable of managing the schedules of large groups. Traditionally, these programs have been limited to displaying data and receiving input directly from users.

However, as with all popular technologies, CGI is being pushed beyond these traditional uses. Going beyond CGI applications that interact with users, the focus of this chapter is on how CGI can be a powerful means of communicating with other programs.

We have seen how CGI programs can act as a gateway to a variety of resources such as databases, email, and a host of other protocols and programs. However, a CGI program can also perform some sophisticated processing on the data it gets so that it effectively becomes a data resource itself. This is the definition of CGI middleware. In this context, the CGI application sits between the program it is serving data to and the resources that it is interacting with.

The variety of search engines that exist provides a good example of why CGI middleware can be useful. In the early history of the Web, there were only a few search engines to choose from. Now, there are many. The results these engines produce are usually not identical. Finding out about a rare topic is not an easy task if you have to jump from engine to engine to retry the search.

Instead of trying multiple queries, you would probably rather issue one query and get back ...