hishnue / wncgiscripts Goto Github PK

Description:

These files were made to run the administrative website for 
the Binghamton University Graduate Conference in Algebra and Topology for
2009 to 2012 and the Upstate New York Number Theory Conferece in 2013.  

Theses sites were run on the math department's WN server, which is why we didn't
just use PHP, as their WN server dosn't support anything developed after 1992
or so.  

The user is to use the defined XML format 
(see example in xmlFormParser.py) to 
specify the fields of the form and their corresponding variables
in a datbase. 
The script xmlFormParser.py, then  uses this XML data to 
make a registration page. 
This workes in stages:
1) if the user had not visited the site before a blank form would be displayed
2) if the user made an error in filling out the form
 then an error page would be displayed
3) if the user successfully filled out the form, then the information would
 be stored in the database and a message would be displayed indicating
 that they had been registered.   

The module wnparser.py was created, due to compatibility issues.  
The WN server allows you to add a wrapper and to use conditionals
when serving a file, but it does not have any of this functinality for
the output of CGI scripts, 
so wnparser.py emulates this functionality and streamlines the whole site.  

There are some other administrative programs not included here.  
The reason for this is that anyone learning how to use this type of
code on the department's servers should learn to do it by writing 
the administrative programs.  All they need to do is access the information
in the database, display the data, and check for validity.  

TODO:

If you ever use this outside the math department, 
which is unlikely considering that almost no one uses a WN server,
then you should consider creating a more detailed explination of the XML data. 

Authors:

Michael Fink
Michael Hampton
Simon Leptkin