Perl Programming with Web Development — a 5-day course

Synopsis

A Perl training course designed cover all the basics of Perl Programming and also enable web developers to build dynamic (database-driven) e-commerce web sites using the Perl programming language, its specialist web modules and CGI (the common gateway interface).

This Perl course includes a thorough grounding in generic Perl programming before covering specialised Perl web development tools and techniques (the stuff that some people think of as CGI Perl) on the final day.

If you are new to programming or web development and are contemplating the use of Perl we suggest that you read our notes on introductory courses first.

Suitable for

Programmers who need to develop serious web sites on any of today's major platforms and in multi-platform environments.
Web Developers with limited scripting experience (such as JavaScript, VBScript, Unix/Linux shell scripting, etc., rather than pure programming) will benefit from this course, but may find it demanding. Some may choose to extend the same material over more than five days, with additional hands-on practical exercises.

Delegates with backgrounds in C-like languages will recognise elements of Perl syntax and can use existing knowledge to progress quickly, but they must beware the temptation to translate literally from C/C++. Perl's native way of doing things is invariably more flexible and better adapted to specialist web development tasks.

Like all of our perl training courses, this course is designed for cross-platform application (e.g. Microsoft Windows, IIS, Apache, MacOS, and Linux/Unix). Unix/Linux developers will benefit particularly from Perl variants of popular Unix tools and from the abundance of Perl modules for use with Unix and the Apache web server.

Prerequisites

This Perl course assumes that delegates can already program in at least one programming language or scripting language, e.g., C, C++, Java, PHP, Visual Basic, Pascal, or COBOL.

Delivery

This is a hands-on practical workshop based around the coding of real world solutions to real world web developers' problems.

This course can be run both as in-house training for company groups and is also a scheduled public course for individuals.

The general Perl programming issues are taught as our four-day Perl Programming course with an extra day devoted exclusively to web development tools and techniques. See , our general perl programming course outline for detailed descriptions of it’s course content. This shorter version is only available for private company groups 'in-house'.

Please contact us at training@gbdirect.co.uk to arrange delivery of this course for your company or to register an interest in an individual place on a public presentation of this course. Please state clearly which of these options applies to you.

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

A schedule of dates for this subject is not currently available. Please call 0800 651 0338 or use our contact form to enquire about places and availability.

Preparing to learn perl

Things you need to know and do in order to run Perl programs and learn Perl programming
A module designed for complete beginners
The perl compiler/interpreter
Perl under Unix/Linux
Perl under MS Windows 2000/NT/95/98/ME (perl.exe)
ActiveState Perl
Making programs executable (chmod +x)
Perl from the command line (perl command)
Specify the perl compiler/interpreter (#!)
Using plain text for programs
Writing a very simple program
Running a very simple program
Basic syntax

Perl: the absolute minimum

Enough of the language to get started
The print function
Variables
Scalars — numbers and strings
Assignment
Simple conditional tests — if
Lists
Arrays — for storing lists
foreach loops
Hashes
Other loops: while, for, do, until
Arrays — the rest
Simple input, e.g., while(<>)
Functions overview — recognising, writing, using
Simple file handling — open, print
Subroutines — parameters in and out, listification, local variables (my)
Help — perldoc, books, web

Regular expressions

Text manipulation with regular expressions
Matching strings
Matching the default variable
Case-sensitivity and matching
Special characters
Special characters: where
Special characters: what
Special characters: how many
Built-in character classes
Built-in character class examples
Capturing
Regular expression examples
Substitution
Global substitutions

Perl: beyond the basics

More flow control
Statement modifiers
Quoting mechanisms — qq(), etc.
Here documents
Uppercase/lowercase conversion
Splitting strings into lists
Joining lists into strings
Filtering lists with map
Sorting lists
The importance of context
Assignment shortcuts
Scoping rules
Special variables

Complex data structures & references

Limits of flat lists
Nesting arrays
Array references
Anonymous arrays
Named array references
Passing multiple arrays to/from functions
Hashes of arrays
Hash references
Arrays of hashes
Hashes of hashes
Complex nested data structures
Code references
Dispatch tables

Finding Out More For Yourself

How to read Perl's documentation
Where to find more information
Knowing what's out there to look for
FAQs

Using Perl Modules from CPAN

The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN)
Why effective Perl programmers are efficient CPAN users
CPAN's philosophy
Finding modules
Installing Modules
Using modules
Some particularly useful modules

The Perl debugger & debugging perl

Avoiding bugs
Perl's built-in debugger
Invoking the debugger
What you can do with the debugger
Understanding the debugger's command line interface
Knowing the debugger's basic command set
Exploring some extended functions
Graphical debuggers
Alternative debugging techniques

Command-Line Perl

General principles
Using Perl as a filter
Editing files in-place
Many real world examples
Command line flags
Many examples using regular expressions

A Whistle-Stop Tour of the World of Perl

Wheels you don't need to re-invent
Common recipes
Common pitfalls

Perl Style

The Philosophy of Perl
Why good style is important
Good style
Bad style

Handling Databases with Perl

Interacting with SQL databases from Perl
Using DBI
Connection/disconnection, log in/log out
Retrieving a single record
Retrieving multiple records
Update/insert queries
Placeholders and bind values
Connecting through ODBC

Advanced File Processing with Perl

Types of open
Filehandles
Reading line by line
Reading paragraph by paragraph
Reading entire files
Special variables
The flip-flop operator (..)
File test functions
Pipes

System interaction

Connecting to other programs
Unsafe pipes
Using IO::Pipe
Grabbing a program's output
Other ways to run programs

Perl Security Issues

Potential security pitfalls
Coding for security
Taint checking
Dangerous environment variables
File input
Set-user-id Perl programs
Permissions and users

Introduction to CGI Programming With Perl

Printing a CGI header for a simple command-line program
Running the simple program as a CGI script
Form handling — CGI::Lite for parameter parsing
GET
POST
Debugging CGI programs
Running CGI programs at the command line

More Advanced CGI Techniques

Hidden fields
Maintaining state
Cookies
CGI & HTTP headers
Redirection to other pages
File uploading

Web Security Issues

CGI scripts and security
User input on the web
Guest books
Dangerous strings
Unsafe process calls
File upload exploits
Safe database access
Permissions for CGI programs