subject: What does "CGI" stand for, anyway? [print this page] A CGI program is any program designed to accept and return data that conforms to the CGI specification. CGI programs are written in a variety of programming languages such as, C, Perl, Java or Visual Basic. The most common language for CGI programming is PERL.
CGI Programs are the most common way for Web servers to interact dynamically with users. Many HTML pages which contain forms, for example, use a CGI program to process the form's data once it's submitted.
The most common CGI scripts implementation we see is a simple feedback or contact form. What it does simply is, taking the information provided in the form, format it as a legible email and sends it through your mail server to a specified email address.
The use of CGI script forms will also prevent spammers from harvesting your email address, sometimes posted on web pages, and send you much annoying unsolicited emails, or worse, selling it around so you get an infinite number of not really wanted or desirable emails.
After the information is processed you may have the choice of sending a "thank you" note emailed back to the sender (autoresponse) or not, then you may redirect the user to a "Thank You" web page, or any other web page you wish.
There's no reason for you to pay for a form processing script. You can find plenty of variations of such scripts for free on Internet.
You can find a great deal of choice at several CGI resource sites. Order forms and survey forms are some other common examples of simple (or sometimes complex) implementation of email forms.
