newbie..need help with cgi code

Hello. I know nothing of CGI/Perl and I really want to learn. I came across a site with a greeting card page that I LOVE. I want to incorporate the code into my site. I contacted the site owner and asked her what she was using to do the greeting card page. She told me it was a feature that came with her webspace provider and asked if I have a cgi-bin. ?? She said she might be able to send me the code. I was thinking I could use Frontpage to get the html and then it would work?? No? Then when she asked if I had a cgi-bin, I'm thinking this is Perl? When I signed up with my host it said that it doesn't support Perl. Do I need to change hosts to get this to work? I really want to use THIS code. I like it much better then some greeting card pages I've seen. If anyone has time to help a newbie in this matter, I'd greatly appreciate it..or point me in a direction where I can learn. I really want to get started asap.
Thanks.

CGI (common gateway interface) is a way for servers and server side programs to interact. It is completely independant of programming language. However, perl is the most popular language for writing cgi scripts. You'll have to check with your host to see if they support cgi, but if they said they don't support perl, I would guess they don't support cgi in general. Find out what language the greeting card code is in. Again, I would guess perl, but its not they only possibility.

Using FrontPage and html will not do what you want. The cgi scripts run on the server, and if they aren't supported, nothing you can code will change that. (Either way, don't use FrontPage, learn HTML and use a text editor).

If you desparately need to use this specific code, double check if your server supports cgi. If they don't, and won't, then to use this code you'll need a different host.
HTH

Thanks Dave. I just saw this on my host's site: "* we do not currently support ASP, PHP, CGI or Perl" so I'll be looking for a new host. I know I have to learn a lot. I've been reading some stuff in here...tutorials, courses and that. Looks like a great place to learn. I'm not sure what the code is for the cards. I emailed her just now so we'll see. If you want to see for yourself, here is the page with the cards: http://www.christopherlambert.org/cards

I did a whois search for the site and I think the host is HOST4U.NET. Just wondering if this is the same host: http://host-4-u.net/hosting_plans.htm
I think my head is going top explode from trying to learn so much at once. I've been a stay home mom for the past 6 years and my youngest one starts school this week so I'll finally have some free time to learn. I really want to learn everything to do with web design. I've been learning Flash, Photoshop, Java, etc. and am trying to create a nice website for myself but it's nice to know the coding. Until I can learn enough I'm stuck with either Frontpage, Dreamweaver and the sort. It's just been faster and easier for me to do it this way.

Thanks again!

I think that http://host-4-u.net is the same host as the other site uses. Regardless, their plans support cgi, perl, and php, so you should be set as far as server-side resources. (They also support FrontPage extensions, but I really think you shouldn't use Frontpage).

If you truly want to learn web design, experience and experimenting are very good things. Don't try to do too much at the same time though. Start with basic html. Don't use Dreamweaver or FrontPage. This will slow you down at first, but it is essential to know html for web design, and if you use a program like FrontPage, its too easy to rely on the program rather than really learning. If your goal is simply to have a nice looking site for people with IE, FrontPage or similar will do that. If your goal is really to learn web design and be good at it, then use notepad and learn from the bottom up.

Flash can do some impressive looking things, but you have to be aware that there are people who don't have Flash, for various reasons, and so if you want to be a good web designer, you won't use Flash for any needed functionality on your site, unless you are certain that all your visitors will have Flash, which is almost impossible unless you are designing for a company intranet or other restricted application.

When you say you are learning Java, do you mean JavaScript? They are not the same thing at all, and it is best to be clear about that for future reference.

Anyway, best of luck with your designing. I'll just say again: start with notepad and straight HTML, you'll learn far more. Have fun!

Ha ha. You are too funny. I'm laughing because you're right. I mean dead on. I did go nuts with the Flash. My menu is Flash. :-/ I want to have a seperate entrance for those without Flash or who don't wish to download it. My site's nothing great like I want. Eventually I do want an all Flash site with an entrance for people w/o Flash. It's just something I'm working on. And I'd actually rather have it work best in Safari then Explorer, but that's just my preference. I know most people use IE.
I used to do the basic html w/o Frontpage. When I got Frontpage I was on cloud 9. It freed up more time for me to play with Photoshop. And that was actually great for me. I could do it w/o Frontpage or Dreamweaver, but I'd be waisting time I could be using to learn more. I am trying to learn how to create my own Java applets actually and not use wizards like I have been using. I have a book here that's kind of old..."Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days". He he. More like 2100 days for me. With both kids in school it will be the first time I can really get to work on the site so I can hopefully finish it and submit it to search engines. I think it loads slow and needs work and I don't like to have to scroll at all and there's lots of that. Some pages have music...others don't. I think I'm going to do away with the music so I stopped adding it. It needs my attention. That's for sure. I liked the last Tomb Raider Flash site. When I saw it, that was all she wrote. I have loads more that I love, but I just like the fairy glamour I guess. Typical woman. It's just a Great Dane site. Nothing very impressive. And other people think it's a bit much. They think I should have like 5 pages with all pictures of dogs that you can scroll down for 30 mins. to see and millions of animated gif files that take years to load (I hate those when they're overdone) and nothing fun. ;-) Mine take long enough to load w/o all that junk. Something else I need to work on.
I'll definately check into that HOST4U.NET. Looks good. And you know I want that card page.

Well, good luck with your page. When you get it to a point where you like it, post in the site reviews forum, so you can get some outside input. Have fun.

I'd agree with this, except it makes it easier on yourself to get a decend editor with nice highlighting like TextPad or Crimson Editor. There are hundreds of them out there. It's well worth taking the time to do HTML properly. If you intend to do web development for others at a later date, it'll reflect better on you.

Good luck with it all!

PS - If you're looking for a CGI-supporting host, have a look at http://www.34sp.com. It's pretty cheap and I've a friend who swears by them, though I haven't used them myself.