Query XML file and display within HTML

[jomo]

Hi,

I need some technical help.

How do I generate a request from an HTML search form (or button/hyperlink) to search/query an XML data file, using CGI scripts, and have the results displayed within an HTML page?
Thanks in advance,

Jomo

 

[Martin Honnen]

How do I generate a request from an HTML search form (or button/hyperlink) to search/query an XML data file, using CGI scripts, and have the results displayed within an HTML page?

A HTML form allows you to make a HTTP request (usually either a GET request where the arg=value data pairs are submitted as part of the URL or a POST request where the arg=value data pairs are submitted as the request body). You CGI script (set as <form action="whatever.cgi" ...> ) then has (language dependent) means to read out the submitted data (e.g. $_GET $_POST in PHP) and then all you need to know how to query an XML file in the server side language of your choice. How you extract data from the XML and transform it to HTML might also depend on the server side environment you use, XSLT is a nice way to do that.

I think you are better off to ask in a group about the server side language you use (e.g. PHP or Perl or Java) on how to solve the task, of course after checking available documentation