SSI & CGI
Server Side Includes or SSIs are commands or directives placed in an HTML file through the use of a comment line. You can update an entire site design, dynamically add the current time and date or the date a file was last modified, with a simple SSI command.
CGI, short for Common Gateway Interface, is a standard for allowing programs (scripts) to run on a Web server. It allows you to make your Web site more dynamic and interactive. CGI is not a programming language, but rather a standard that allows scripts to be written by other languages to run over the Internet. The CGI script receives the information from a Web form or a Web page, processes and formats that information and it results in a dynamic html file.
ApolloHosting allows you to write CGI scripts using
Perl
and
Python .
How CGI & SSI work on ApolloHosting.
Check Error Logs - View the error logs generated by the scripts on your site.
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About SSI & CGI at ApolloHosting
ApolloHosting's PowerPack allows you to utilize both CGI and Server Side Includes. To ensure that your Perl scripts work smoothly, please refer to the following information before you get started:
Path to your Web directory:
/home/users/web/b1954/apo.sela1969
This is important, as most of your scripts will need to specify this location. For example, this is required if uploading files was a function that you'd like your script to do.
Recommended path: http://yourcompanyname.com/cgi-bin/yourscript.cgi
If you do not have a domain name, point to: http://yourusername.apollohosting.com/cgi-bin/yourscript.cgi
CGI Languages supported: Perl and Python
Required Server Side Includes filename extensions: .shtml
Required CGI extensions: .pl or .cgi for Perl scripts and .py for Python scripts
These are the extensions that your files must have or they will not work. For example, they would be yourscript.cgi or yourscript.pl
Using CGI
This article explains what CGI is, shows how to reach some common scripting tools, warns about some script restrictions, and guides through most common troubleshooting issues.
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Definitions
What is CGI
CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. ApolloHosting lets you run CGI scripts written in a scripting language such as Perl, PHP, and shell scripts.
CGI allows you to add interactive and dynamic content to your Web page. You can have your own WWWBoard to let your users interact, run your own website poll or keep track of your visitors.
Java Servlets - definition and support
Java Servlets are like CGI scripts except that they are programmed in Java. Currently, ApolloHosting does not support Java Servlets.
CGI - Enhanced Script Library scripts
The Enhanced Script Library contains a click-through counter tool and a Form Email script. Click here to see all available scripts.
Available file extensions for scripts
Perl scripts must have a .pl or .cgi extension.
PHP scripts can have the following extensions: .php, .phtml, .php3, .php4., and/or .php5
Python scripts must have a .py extension.
SSI files must have a .shtml or .shtm extension.
The path to Perl (UNIX platform only)
The path to Perl is: /usr/local/bin/perl
Note that ApolloHosting's CGI servers automatically direct your scripts to this path. You do not need to change the "#!" line at the top of your scripts.
How To
Host RSS files
Since RSS is a file format and not a scripted language, you can publish RSS files in your web directory directly. To automatically generate an RSS file based on your website's content, you can use a server-side script (CGI, PHP, Perl, or ASP) or the RSS file can be generated by a client application running on your local PC, or it can be generated by hand.
Information -List of tools for creating RSS files
Read Your CGI Error Log
When reading a CGI error log, the first thing to remember is that errors are appended to the end of the error log. You'll need to scroll down to the bottom of the log to see the latest entry.
NOTE: Error log entries are limited to approximately 500 characters. This limit is rarely hit, but if you find that one of your longer errors appears to be truncated, this may be the reason.
When your CGI application records an error in your log, there are a few pieces of information that are recorded along with it. Following is an example that has been broken down into further detail:
Sample error:
20120622T165202: apollohosting.com/file.php Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in /path/to/file.php on line 33
The first part of the log entry is the date and time that the error occurred (always shown in Eastern Time):
20120622T165202 = June 22, 2012 at 4:52:02 PM
Year: 2012
Month: 06
Day: 22
Time: 16:52:02 PM
The second part of the log entry is the URL to the file that generated the error:
apollohosting.com/file.php
The final part of the entry is the error itself:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in /path/to/file.php on line 33
If you're not sure what a particular error means, there's a good chance that you'll be able to find some more information about it by using a search engine such as Google or Bing, but you may need to remove the information that's specific to your site (such as your domain or the server path) to find useful results.
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
My script worked fine yesterday, but now it says it can't find the path to my files. What happened?
As part of our ongoing system maintenance, we sometimes add new devices to help improve the performance of customer websites. As a result of the new hardware, customer CGI scripts (Perl, PHP) and databases that use "real" directory paths may cease to work.
If you are using real directory paths (paths that start with "/hermes/webxx/"), you need to replace them with the correct symbolic paths ("/home/users/web/"), which are fully compatible with our shared hosting architecture.
If you have any questions or need assistance updating your paths, please contact us, and we will assist you
Why is my script returning a Server 500 error?
Explore the following possibilities to troubleshoot:
Does your account include CGI accessibility?
Did you call your script with the correct url?
Did you upload it to the correct directory?
Does your script expect values? If so, did you use the right method (POST/GET)?
If you edited path variables in the script, are they correct?
Are you sure you uploaded the script in ASCII mode? If not, you will have to upload them in ASCII mode to make them work.
It's possible that the .htaccess coding (if coded improperly) could be causing the 500 error.
Restrictions
Script restrictions
All scripts have the following run time and language support limitations:
Run time: All PHP/CGI/Perl scripts are limited to a 60 seconds run time. If your script does not complete during that time, it will be killed. ApolloHosting cannot allow custom scripts to impact the performance of other customer sites on our shared hosting platform.
Language support: ApolloHosting supports almost any Perl, PHP, or shell scripts. You cannot run CGI scripts written in C++, Visual Basic or some other language.
For liability and cost reasons, ApolloHosting cannot help you write or troubleshoot your CGI scripts. If you need further help, we recommend that you contact a qualified developer/programmer for assistance.
Language support restrictions
ApolloHosting does not provide support for custom code or custom scripts. We assume that if a customer wants to use Perl, CGI, PHP, Python, ASP or any other scripting language, he/she has the necessary programming skills to manage these scripts. The tools we provide are meant only for advanced users and for users who are knowledgeable enough to manage their scripts using those tools.
If you have limited experience or knowledge about server-side scripting and troubleshooting custom code, we strongly recommend that you look into hiring a web developer to assist you. As your host, we are only responsible for hosting your files on our platform and providing the proper hosting environment (See our Terms of Service here).
There are, however, several exceptions in which we will consider troubleshooting your custom code/scripts. If your issues resulted from any of the following, we will do our best to assist you:
Platform Migration - In cases of upgrading or switching platforms. We will troubleshoot scripts which worked on the old platform prior to migration, but do not currently work on the new platform (Only within 2-3 weeks after migration);
FormMail.pl - We can attempt to troubleshoot individual copies of the generic FormMail.pl that is available from open source repositories on the Web. Yet we cannot troubleshoot this script if it has been extensively customized or if it is not the most recent version v1.92. Also, we cannot support other form processor script issues using our mail programs: sendmail and PHPMail. We recommend and will support our form processor script (For more information go to your PowerPack or click here).
ApolloHosting Servers - Scripts which worked for weeks/months and have no modifications done, but suddenly stopped working;
ApolloHosting Scripts – All server-side scripts which we provide as a part of your plan;
Fulfillment - If your plan includes access to CGI and/or other server-side scripting, but no scripts function on your account;
