I have been working with one of the Mentors from
rubymentor.rubyforge.org. Through our e-mail conversation and some
experimenting, I learned several things. I am posting them here
because I think it is helpful to all who might come after me and to
show my appreciation for the help that has been given.
There were several parts to making a ‘CGI’ script using ruby:
-
Configuring the apache server(that’s what I was using): Some
important points are to have the Options +ExecCGI options for your
particular site and for ScriptAlias to be pointing at the directory
that contains the intended ruby script. Looking at the apache log
files started me in the right direction for these things. -
Writing the script: There is a reasonable example in the online
book ( Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide ).
However, what it didn’t mention is that you can test things by
executing the program on the command line and providing your
environment variables to the script followed by a control-D. I found
this after googling a little. -
Setting permissions: This is obvious for most people…but it
should be mentioned. The permissions on your script need to be set so
that your webserver will be able to read and execute them ( anyone
want to share best practices here?)
It would be great if others with way more experience could clear up
any mistatements I might have made because of my lack of experience.
Best practices examples are most welcome.
Thanks.
Mike B.