CGI is just an interface between a program and a web server. Other newer interfaces are fastcgi, fcgid, mod_perl, psgi...
Using another interface than CGI has some advantages and some disadvantages. The main advantage is that the programs are persistent, so they are ran once, usually when the web server starts, then they respond very fast to HTTP requests. The disadvantage is that they are a little more complicated than just using CGI, plus that they consume some more memory. If you need to create a public web site that should always respond as fast as possible, it is definitely required to use the modern interfaces, preferably psgi. If you need to create very small scripts just for internal use, with no relations among them, so no central authentication/authorization for example, and if they are not accessed by very many users in a day and it is OK if the users wait 2 more seconds to open the page, then you can use CGI with no problem. The CGI scripts are not persistent, so they are loaded/compiled/executed each time they are accessed with an HTTP request. If you change something in a CGI script, you don't need to stop/start it after you do the change. Using web frameworks is another story. If you need to do very very simple and dirty scripts that do very simple things and return a very simple web interface, then you can create them without using higher level modules like an ORM, a templating engine, a form manager. If the programs are a little bigger, and if they need to be easily maintainable or if the web interfaces they need to create are a little more complex, then it is better to use that kind of module, and separate the Perl code and the HTML, Javascript, CSS code in distinct files. If you need to use those modules and you actually want to create a web application, then it is easier if you use a web framework. The most used Perl web frameworks these days are Catalyst, Dancer and Mojolicious. They help you to organize the application in a way that makes it easy to maintain on long term. You can use the web frameworks with any interface you like (if the framework supports it), for example you can use a Catalyst - based web app with the CGI interface, but because CGI interface needs to load the entire application on each request, and when using a web framework it usually needs to load a lot of module, it works very very slow. So usually when the application uses a web framework it also uses a persistent interface like psgi or fastcgi or mod_perl. If the scripts are accessed only localy, if they are complex enough and need to be easy maintainable and you want to use a web framework, you need to choose among Catalyst, Dancer, Mojolicious, CGI::Application or other Perl framework. For smaller projects that require very few features, Dancer and Mojolicious Lite may be better than Catalyst because they are easier to learn, but for bigger applications or applications that may become bigger Catalyst is better. Also, if you know to use some Perl modules like an ORM like DBIx::Class, a templating system like Template-Toolkit or others, Catalyst is better because it is very flexible and lets you use what you want. But if you don't know anything, Mojolicious may be better because it does the things in its own way. It also allows you to use other Perl modules, but the recommendations are always to use its standard way. So there is more than one way and you can choose depending on your needs. --Octavian ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Freiberger To: begin Perl Beginners Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 8:30 AM Subject: Newbie creating Perl web report Hello everyone, I'm somewhat confused on a topic of CGI vs a web frame work for creating simple applications. I've been reading Beginning Perl by Ovid and seems like it's recommend to use a frame work instead of the older method of CGI module. Is frame works like Mojolicious or Flask the new recommended method for creating web based tools or scripts? My goal is making some reports for work that would stay internally but also apply what I learn to other external side projects. Thanks, Robert -- Robert Freiberger
