Integrating SQL with CGI, Part 2

Now that we have seen how to get our queries to work at the SQL level, let's think about the necessary steps needed to integrate these queries into some CGI programs. For the most part, our CGI programs do not need many changes. We need to modify send-postcard.pl so that it inserts the graphic ID into the postcards table, rather than the graphics file name, and show-postcard.pl needs to use the SQL query that we formulated above in order to get the graphic file name from the graphics table in addition to the information in the postcards table. The revised versions of the code are not completely reprinted this month. These two listings along with the listing that is printed are available by anonymous download in the file ftp.linuxjournal.com/pub/lj/listings/issue43/2508.tgz.

First, we'll look at the revised version of show-postcard.pl. The only change to be made to the listing printed last month is in the SQL query, which now reflects the new table:

my $command = "";
$command = "select postcards.sender_name,";
$command .= "postcards.sender_email,";
$command .= "postcards.recipient_name,";
$command .= "graphics.graphic_file,";
$command .= "postcards.postcard_text from ";
$command .= "postcards,graphics ";
$command .= "where id_number = $id";
$command .= "and postcards.graphic_id = ";
$command .= "graphics.graphic_id";

Only this one change is necessary, because of the way in which we wrote the original version of show-postcard.pl. By contrast, imagine how much code we would have needed to rewrite if we had initially stored the information in a single ASCII text file, and then split the information between two files.

Our modifications to send-postcard.pl is almost as easy. We need to add the definition of $graphic_id, rather than $graphic_name, at the top of the file:

my $graphic_id = $query->param("graphic_id");

When we insert the postcard into the postcards table, we must modify the code so it uses the graphic_id column and variable, rather than graphic_name:

$command = "insert into postcards ";
$command .= " (id_number, sender_name, ";
$command .= " (sender_email, recipient_name, ";
$command .= " recipient_email, graphic_id, ";
$command .= " postcard_text) ";
$command .= "values ";
$command .= " ($id_number, \"$sender_name\", ";
$command .= " \"$sender_email\", ";
$command .= " \"$recipient_name\", ";
$command .= " \"$recipient_email\", ";
$command .= " \"$graphic_id\", ";
$command .= " \"$postcard_text\") ";

There is one remaining problem with this version of the code. How is a visitor to our site supposed to know or remember the ID numbers for the various graphics that are available? We could modify the HTML form to provide this information, but it seems a bit silly for us to do so, since we would then have to update the form each time we updated the table.

The simplest solution is to write a small CGI program that produces the HTML form, inserting the values as appropriate. There are a number of different ways to allow the user to choose, but I decided when writing this program to take a relatively easy path by using radio buttons. A more aesthetically minded programmer (or one who expected to have a lot of graphics files) may have chosen a selection list, but that's a side issue. The resulting program, postcard-form.pl, is shown in Listing 1.

That about does it for our postcard-sending problem. There are, of course, many other ways in which this set of programs could be extended or modified. For example, it might be a good idea to create a CGI program that would allow us to enter and edit the file names in the graphics table, so that we would not have to use the interactive mysql program for such modifications. Currently, only someone knowledgeable in SQL can add, modify and delete elements in the graphics table. We could also ensure that the ID numbers in the graphics table are given sequentially; some relational database vendors provide that facility, allowing for “identity” columns that automatically increment as new rows are added.

It would also be nice to allow users to preview the graphics they place on the postcards, or at least describe the pictures rather than just presenting the users with file names. This option might require storing two versions of each graphic or adding another column to the graphics table that would be used for descriptions or previews.

The possibilities, as you can tell, are unlimited—and this is a relatively small project.

This article ends our whirlwind tour of SQL, although future columns will undoubtedly continue to use relational databases as a means for storing information. Next month, though, we will look at the efficiency of our CGI programs, including the “CGI lite” module for Perl.

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