On Mon, 15 Nov 1999 22:37:23 PST, Pakorn Pongpaet <[log in to unmask]>  said:
> Hi. I'm fairly new with LISTSERV and I know very little about it.
> My question is am I able to embed CGI scripts or VB exes when using
> LISTSERV?

Umm.. embed CGI scripts in *what*, exactly?  What problem are you
trying to solve?

Are you trying to embed CGI into the mail you're sending?  That's
probably going to make you very popular among those who don't
appreciate mail that has active content.

Are you trying to make Listserv behave differently?  I'd recommend
reading the site manager's guide and the list owner's guide - it's
pretty rare when the desired behavior isn't either available by
setting a configuration option, or through other documented means.

You may be looking at it the wrong way - consider embedding Listserv
*inside* your CGI script or VB exec.  I just completed coding a package
to allow one of our web-based online systems to, on a professor's
request, create a mailing list for a class and subscribe the students.
The professor hits a button, a co-worker's CGI code does a whole bunch
of authentication and SQL stuff, and calls my stuff to do the Listserv
back-end support.

All it took was some creative use of C to call the 'lcmdx' stuff
to create the list, and calling the wa.cgi code to do the bulk loading.
Open port 80, send your request, and wait.  Works great - but I'd
recommend using an HTTP subroutine library if you can ;)

> It seems to me that the use of command tickets calls some sort of CGI or
> ASP.

Sorry, but this sounds like a "If your only tool is a hammer,
everything looks like a nail" supposition.  Back in the days when
programmers actually had to write code, any programmer could figure out
how to set up an event queue of actions to be taken once a given event
happens.  No CGI needed - write the command to do into a file, tag it
with a "when you get an OK back, do it", and send the "Command
confirmation requested" mail.  When you get the mail back, look through
your file to see which things you need to handle.  Every midnight or
so, go through and throw away all the expired events you're tired of
waiting on.

No CGI needed. No ASP needed. Listserv is an actual *program*, not
a bunch of funny little HTML pages all bundled together....

> Also, I would really appreciate any additional documentation other than the
> ones provided in your site on LISTSERV.

I'm not sure which ones you mean by "provided in your site", but...

The site administrator's guide, the list owner's guide, and the
archives of the LSTSRV-L, LSTSRV-E, and LSTOWN-L mailing lists should
be sufficient for answering most questions - I'd check there first.
If it *hasn't* already been asked-and-answered, feel free to post
to the appropriate mailing list - that's what it's there for.

                                Valdis Kletnieks
                                Operating Systems Analyst
                                Virginia Tech