HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
http://www.kumquat.com/cgi-bin/dump_get?name=bob&phone=555-1212
When the
www.kumquat.com
server processes this URL, it invokes the
application named
dump_get
that is stored in the directory named
cgi-
bin
. Everything after the question mark is passed to the application as
parameters.
Things diverge a bit at this point, due to the nature of the GET-style
URL. While forms place name/value pairs in the URL, it is possible to in-
voke a GET-style application with only values in the URL. Thus, the fol-
lowing is a valid invocation as well, with parameters separated by plus
signs (+):
http://www.kumquat.com/cgi-bin/dump_get?bob+555-1212
This is a common invocation when the browser references the applica-
tion via a searchable document with the
<isindex>
tag. The parameters
typed by the user into the document's text-entry field get passed to the
server-side application as unnamed parameters separated by plus signs.
If you invoke your GET application with named parameters, your server
passes those parameters to the application in one way; unnamed para-
meters are passed differently.
9.12.2.1. Using named parameters with GET applications
Named parameters are passed to GET applications by creating an envir-
onment variable named
QUERY_STRING
and setting its value to the entire
portion of the URL following the question mark. Using our previous ex-
ample, the value of
QUERY_STRING
would be set to:
name=bob&phone=555-1212
