Link a web page to a C++ program

tition (887)
Hi all,

I have a C++ math program that I want to link to a web page. I want to share its output with some senior mathematics colleagues abroad that do not know any programming and are not likely to try to compile the source themselves.

What I want is:

One opens a web page (hosted on my university's servers). The web page offers some input fields and a button for computation. Once the button is activated, the server should run (on its own machine(s)) my C++ program passing it the input fields.

Once the computation is done, I want the web page to display a text returned by my program. If possible, I would also like to generate graphics for my user (but that is a later assignment).

How should I go about doing such a thing? What would you do if you were me?

I have 0 experience in any internet programming. I hope there is some simple enough solution that will be "easy" enough for a start. As a complete amateur programmer, I want to avoid as many as possible of the nasty technical details, if possible.

Thanks!

tummychow (1210)
C++ is not big on web integration. If anything that's quite high level. Try js. You can also statically link the libraries and send the colleagues a compiled executable of your program instead. Such a program would be self-contained and would not require compilation or a redistributable library package.
blackcoder41 (1426)
if i were you and this is the case
The web page offers some input fields and a button for computation.
i will use javascript.. it's easy to learn if you have programming experience.


if this is the case
If possible, I would also like to generate graphics for my user
i would program it in java and display an applet on the user's web browser..
tummychow (1210)
Applets are the best bet, no doubt.
raffos (17)
If you really want to use your c++ program you must transform it in a cgi, but it's not so easy to do if didn't do it before. Perhaps I think you could do it in a few days or at last in a week of work with some cgi libraries like http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialC++CGI.html

You alse must know that work with graphics in c++ it's not so easy.

I don't know if you can do it with javascript because I don't know what have to do the program, but if you can't use js then you can use php for calculation e for graphics too and it's not so difficult to learn.

For graphics with php look at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-objorient/
tition (887)
Try js. You can also statically link the libraries and send the colleagues a compiled executable of your program instead.


The program is already 20k lines of code and is heavily templated/subclassed, so rewriting it is another language is not an option for me.

and send the colleagues a compiled executable of your program instead

I did send them my compiled executables a few times but I constantly change stuff in the internal algorithm, so I want to be able to have on the site the very latest version that I experimented on. Both professors that are interested in my work are quite senior (60+) and use Macintoshes. I doubt they will actually try to run something unless it's *dead easy*.

Thanks a lot for the links!
raffos (17)
Just another thing.You could construct the form with two buttons, the first button call your c++ cgi, the second button call the php page for the graphics reading the data calculated with the first button and written in a temporary file. You could pass the name of the file to the form and so perhaps it shouldn't be very difficult.
tition (887)
I have been trying for two days to run my program via cgi, but, as expected, I am banging my head against the wall.

I am running ubuntu latest updated version and I am brand new in the linux community. I am sure I am doing it all wrong, but anyways let me say what I've been trying:

1. I have set a console executable, called vp, to be located in folder /var/www/cgi-bin/
2. I have set /var/www/index.html to contain a template from raffo's links:
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<HTML> 
<HEAD><TITLE>Test CGIcc form</TITLE></HEAD> 
<BODY bgcolor="#cccccc" text="#000000"> 
<H2>Test CGIcc form</H2> 
<P> 
<FORM method="POST" action="./cgi-bin/vp"> 
Value 1 :
<input type="text" name="value1"> 
<P> 
Value 2 :
<select name="value2"> 
   <option value="option1">Option 1
   <option value="option2">Option 2
   <option value="option3">Option 3
</select> 
<P> 
Value 3 :
<input type="radio" name="value3" value="button1" checked="checked">Button1
<input type="radio" name="value3" value="button2">Button2
 <input type="hidden" name="value4" value="data4"> 
<P> 
<input type="submit" value="Submit"> 
</FORM> 
</BODY> 
</HTML>

3. I open http//localhost with my favorite browser.
4. I click the sample button given by the above code.
5. My browser offers me to download the executable file.

Instead I want it to execute the file (on the server, with default user privileges).

How should I do this? What I am doing wrong - is there another command for making a program run on the server? I saw many configuration-y looking files in the folder /etc/apache2 . Is there some configuration that needs to be done there? (atm it has default settings).

Thanks!
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