Assignment 1: Dynamic web content
due Tuesday, Jan 23

In this assignment you will create a small website to provide an interface to a database of movie listings. The website allows users both to search for movies with keywords, and to browse movie-theaters and movies by navigating between them. 

You have to construct a website with the following structure:

Website Overview

• Search page: this will be the starting page, and contains two parts. (1) a labeled web form with a button enabling a movie title keyword search. This search returns a movie list page with all movies whose title contains the search string. (2) A link, for each of the three districts, which takes the user to a theater list page with all theaters in the respective district.
• Theater list page: a page of this form displays a list of theaters. Each entry contains the theater name, address, phone, district(s), and the names of all movies  together with the hours when they play.  Each movie name should be a link to a movie list page containing that movie only. Each district should be a link to a theater list page with all theaters in that district.
• Movie list page: a page of this form displays a list of movies. Each movie contains the title, rating, length, and the names of  all theaters that show that movie, together with the hours when they play. Each theater name is  a link to a theater list page containing that theater only.

To accomplish this task you will need to do two things.  First you need to create a database in SQL Server from a script using the Query Analyzer  Second, you will write CGI bin scripts in Perl to generate the web pages dynamically from the database. You will be given an account on a new web server "cubist" with a liberal CGI programming policy. (For security reasons CGI programs are restricted on the regular cs web server.) You will write a series of CGI scripts in Perl which provide a web form for user input, interface with the database instance you created, and return html content. These are the suggested tools for completing the assignment. If you prefer different methods, you are free to use them at your own risk.

Getting Started

• Creating the database in SQL Server 2000
• Sample CGI program in Perl

Resources

• Perl FAQ
• Web Monkey intro to CGI / Perl
• O'Reilly's Learning Perl
• O'Reilly's Perl in a Nutshell