Product Description

Checking links, batch editing HTML files, tracking users, and writing CGI scripts - these are the often tedious daily tasks that can be done much more easily with Perl, the scripting language that runs on almost all computing platforms. This book is not so much about learning Perl as it is about using Perl to do common Web chores more efficiently. The secret is that, although becoming a Perl expert may be hard, most Perl scripts are relatively simple. Using Perl and other open source tools, you'll learn how to: incorporate a simple search engine Write a simple CGI gateway; convert multiple text files into HTML Monitor log files; and track users as they navigate your site. Even if you don't have any programming background, this book should get you quickly past Perl's seemingly forbidding barrier of chops and chomps, execs and elsifs. You'll be able to put an end to using clunky tools, editing files tediously by hand, or relying on programmers and system administrators to do "the hard stuff" for you.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #972243 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

PerlDiver, slashdot.org, July 17, 2002
"....If you or anyone you know wants to cross the chasm from 'content' to 'code,' get this book."

Jessica Ledbetter,Williamsburg Macromedia User Group, August 2002
"This is a good book to introduce someone to the power of Perl in regards to running a web...."

PerlDiver, slashdot.org, July 17, 2002
If you or anyone you know wants to cross the chasm from 'content' to 'code,' get this book.

Customer Reviews

A good overall look at whats needed of a 'webmaster'
As usual with O'Reilly books, 'Perl for Web Site Management' is well written, nicely bound and easy to read. As you can possible tell from the table of contents, this book basicly brings together various elements from the camel book, as well as the Perl Cookbook, Learning Perl and various other O'Reilly perl titles.

However, don't let that put you off. The book is well structured, starting with the very basics of perl for newbies, and moving onto more complicated topics. It also covers using the shell via telnet, deciding upon a suitable webhost and analysing log files. Security issues are also visited, which is an important feature when dealing with Perl scripts on the web.

Overall, this is a good book for those involved with the web who don't know to much about Perl, but are eager to learn. You can certainly gain most of this information seperatly from other O'Reilly Perl books, but this manages to bring it all together nicely.

Disappointing
To be honest, I bought this book not quite knowing what to expect but, since I do a fair amount of Perl programming and look after a number of different websites it seemed like a logical enough choice.

If you are well versed in the various black arts of Perl programming, there's no need for you to buy this book - it assumes little prior knowledge and will teach you just about enough to do simple website maintainence duties (link checkin, CGI forms etc.etc.). The one saving grace is a small chapter near the end of the book on how to write Perl modules.

If you want to learn enough Perl to administer a website, this book is adequate. If you want to do the job properly, get the Camel Book, the Perl Cookbook and `CGI Programming in Perl'.

O'Reilly have only released two really bad books to date - the ill-fated 'Linux Clusters' tome and the truly awful 'Palm Programming'. The jury is still out as to whether this will make it into third place.