Programming Python, Second Edition

What’s a Server-Side CGI Script?

Simply put, CGI scripts implement much of the interaction you typically experience on the Web. They are a standard and widely used mechanism for programming web site interaction. There are other ways to add interactive behavior to web sites with Python, including client-side solutions (e.g., JPython applets and Active Scripting), as well as server-side technologies, which build upon the basic CGI model (e.g., Active Server Pages and Zope), and we will discuss these briefly at the end of Chapter 15, too. But by and large, CGI server-side scripts are used to program much of the activity on the Web.

The Script Behind the Curtain

Formally speaking, CGI scripts are programs that run on a server machine and adhere to the Common Gateway Interface -- a model for browser/server communications, from which CGI scripts take their name. Perhaps a more useful way to understand CGI, though, is in terms of the interaction it implies.

Most people take this interaction for granted when browsing the Web and pressing buttons in web pages, but there is a lot going on behind the scenes of every transaction on the Web. From the perspective of a user, it’s a fairly familiar and simple process:

1. Submission. When you visit a web site to purchase a product or submit information online, you generally fill in a form in your web browser, press a button to submit your information, and begin waiting for a reply.

2. Response. Assuming all is well with both your Internet connection ...