Help me avoid coding a lame webpage!

February 16, 2009 5:07 PM

I need a simple cgi-bin script that implements a scoreboard or counter for multiple teams.

So a buddy of mine wants a simple web page that allows a handful of users to log in, view the scores of other teams, and increment or set their own score. For example, if you logged in as John, you might see something resembling:

Tim: 12
Pete: 9
John: 13 + -
Luke: 10

The + and - above would be buttons that John could use to increment his score (or maybe it's a text box with a submit button). Basically, he's looking for something really simple (a simple Perl cgi-bin script would be fine), and security is basically a non-issue.

This is something I could probably put together in perl in a couple hours, but the script he needs is state-of-the-art circa 1997, and there's really nothing that interests me beyond the fact that a friend's requested it. Besides, this has got to have been implemented before and I'd rather reuse than rewrite. I did some Google searches, but came up empty. Anyone have any suggestions for something that will work out of the box, or something close that I can modify?

posted by perrce to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Try both sourceforge.net and perlmonks.com, although the latter may have to argue a while as to the most efficient implementation, j/k. You may have to repost on perlmonks as well if you don't stumble upon something already made. Also cpan.org.

I'd code it but it's been a while and programmers in general are quite lazy.
posted by prodevel at 6:13 PM on February 16, 2009

You might be underestimating. Since you need both user-by-user conditional display, user-by-user record security, and logins for each, this will end up being a 10 pound hammer for a thumbnail no matter what you do. I know this because I hacked together a "simple" little family-and-friends website once. The feature requirements do tend to snowball once you think through the utility functions you need.

Perl sounds like your favorite hammer. So use a bare bones Apache/SSI/Perl method. If you have some existing or repurposable user-management scripts (create, change password) just use that, and just add the per-user and +/- stuff with some if-then conditional SSI's based on REMOTE_USER.

Maybe not a couple hours, but an afternoon at worst.
posted by rokusan at 6:09 AM on February 17, 2009