In real life, there are many forms to fill out. Come April, most of us will be filling out tax forms. We’ll write all the numbers in the little spaces. We’ll write names and addresses in boxes. When we get all finished, we’ll put those forms in an envelope, stick a stamp on it and send it to the IRS. After a few days, the government will get our forms and examine them for flaws and discrepancies. If all goes smoothly, we won’t have to fill out a tax form for a whole other year.

"...hit the submit button and zap, it's all done. Using an online form is easy. Creating an online form, one that works, not so easy."

On the Internet, forms seem so easy to use. Type in some contact info, click click click, hit the submit button and zap, it’s all done. Using an online form is easy. Creating an online form, one that works, not so easy.

As a newbie adult webmaster, you’ve probably encountered many online forms. The site submission page on a search engine is a form. The signup page for that cool sponsor is a form. TGP submit pages, help and feedback pages, online surveys, shopping carts, all are forms. These forms make it possible for surfers to send information to a website without having to use email. As an adult webmaster, there will be many instances where you’ll need such information. You’ll want to put forms on your site. That is why you will want to familiarize yourself with Perl.

Perl is a scripting language developed by a fellow named Larry Wall. Originally, Perl stood for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language. Now, it's just called Perl. Perl is a language that works very well with CGI. CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. CGI is used to send data to a special application program on a web server. In other words, CGI allows a user to send information to program residing on a web server.

Say you want your surfers to sign up for a newsletter. With a script written in Perl, you can put a sign-up form on your web site. Your surfers will fill out the information on your form. When they click the submit button on your form, the Perl script sends that information to the CGI bin on your web server. The CGI application will process that information and perform the task you designate. In the case of a newsletter signup form, that task would be to then send a confirmation email to your user.

Now do not be frightened. I am not going to tell you that you have to learn Perl in order to become a great adult webmaster. The fact is, there are tons and tons of pre-built Perl scripts which you can either download for free or buy from a programmer. The cool thing about these pre-scripted gems is they often are cut-and-paste and come with excellent instructions on how to modify them for your particular needs. Modifying a Perl script is not that hard. The language uses words enclosed within defining characters much like HTML does.

The most important thing you need to know about Perl is if your web host is set up to handle it. What you should find out is whether your web host account is or is not CGI enabled. If your host does not allow CGI, then you cannot use Perl. If your host enables CGI, then you are good to go. Overall, most free adult hosts do not allow CGI. As well, most paid hosting packages allow CGI.

If you want to learn Perl, then I advise you start at one of my favorite places, Webmonkey. They have some great starter tutorials for Perl and CGI located in the section entitled Programming. The authors explain things in clear prose along with example codes.

For the surfer, forms on the web are easy. They should be. You want your end users to be able to take full advantage of the benefits of your site. Eventually there will come time when you need to put an interactive form on your adult page. Eventually, you will want to expand your knowledge beyond the limits of simple HTML. When you do decide to add forms to your site, you'll be glad you know a little about Perl.