Re: Displaying a protected HTML file

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 16:27:42 -0600
Matthew Peavy <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi cgi folks,
> 
> I have a fairly simple application.  I want to read in a user name / 
> password from a form, verify that the two match within a cgi program, 
> and then display an HTML page.  If the password was invalid, I do not 
> want to allow the person access to the desired page, rather, I want to
> 
> give them an error page.
> 
> I would like to display a static HTML page.  Thus, I don't want the
> cgi program to dynamically create the HTML.  I just want to redirect
> the users browser to a page -- however, the user should NOT be able to
> get to the page without passing the password test. 
> 
> Is this possible using cgicc?
> 
> Thanks,
> Matt.
> 
The simple answer is: yes. Your question stripped down to the basics is:
Can cgicc direct the user to a particular page based on values inputted
in a form? 

How do you plan to protect this secret static page from someone
entering: http://valid_path_to secret_page/top_secret.html?

Sometimes its easier to use mechanisms available in the server than to
rely on the client interface. My point being there is an "ok"
logon/password mechanism for accessing web pages already available on
the server-side - why bother reinventing it on the client. Unfortunately
I can think of a few.

cgicc, of itself, doesn't support session variables. Thats what I once
used to protect pages. user/password was found in a database in my case.
I think session/application/(there is another) variable maintenance is
IMHO beyond the scope of cgicc.

I think I am digressing into architecture. cgicc is an excellent tool, I
don't think it will supply the mechanism to protect your "secret" pages.

Best of Luck,
Vlad
> 
> 
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