Web Client Programming with Perl: Automating Tasks on the Web

by Clinton Wong

On the World Wide Web, people are accustomed to using graphical browsers such as Netscape Navigator or Mosaic as their only interface for visiting remote sites, accessing up-to-date documents, and filling out forms. But graphical browsers can be the very interactivity that makes them so intuitive to use also makes them clumsy for automating tasks. If you want to get the latest weather report every few hours, track a Federal Express package online, or use a dictionary server repeatedly throughout the day, using your browser to perform the same task over and over can become cumbersome. As with any repetitive task, these applications are best done by writing a script. Web Client Programming with Perl shows you how to extend scripting skills to the Web. This book teaches you the basics of how browsers communicate with servers and how to write your own customized Web clients to automate common tasks. It is intended for those who are motivated to develop software that offers a more flexible and dynamic response than a standard Web browser.Using this book, you'll learn how This book will be of interest Most of the examples in this book use Perl, a versatile and portable language that is already familiar to many CGI programmers and UNIX power users. The book does not teach Perl, but the techniques used in the book should be easily followed by anyone with some programming background and can be adapted to whatever language you choose.

Genres: Technical

213 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

Reviews

[scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the book that opened my eyes to the inner-workings of the web. Pretty basic stuff, but i'm always shocked how many experienced software developers have some pretty big holes in their knowledge of the http protocol, etc. I bought this book hot of the presses when i happened to have a project that needed separate C and Perl http clients. This was exactly what the doctor ordered i read it cover to cover and haven't been the same since. I don't remember it being brilliant, but it was solid and the subject matter happened to be very timely for me.

[Noah Sussman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been out of print for many years. I found it at Computer Book Works in lower Manhattan.

A book from a simpler Internet, before Java libraries and Web service frameworks. Starts with socket programming, then gets into LWP.

So far an ideal book for a front-end developer just starting to learn the "facts of life" of the server side. Just to reiterate, I am a front-end developer; that is, I took a couple of comp-sci classes, but mostly I studied art. So given that I knew absolutely nothing about, say, sockets, this book was, as Scott said, a timely find.

Likewise, I didn't know about some small, useful Perl tools like GetOpt::Simple There's just one example of each, but hey, that's all you need.

[Rohan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outdated, but free: http://oreilly.com/openbook/webclient/