SML/CGI is a completely dumb CGI library. CGI libraries have existed for SML forever, so this is really just an up-to-date version of the same thing. It attempts to replicate some of the functionality of smlweb (http://smlweb.sf.net) without relying on SML/NJ integration.

Running make in the top-level source directory will build the template compiler. No building of the library is necessary. However, the following things are required:

• CMlib > 1.0.0
• MLton or SML/NJ

The easiest way to obtain SML/CGI is to use Smackage:

smackage get smlcgi
smackage make smlcgi
smackage make smlcgi install

This will install all the necessary dependencies.

Using the library is as simple as including cgi.mlb in your application.

A minimal application might be:

val _ = startResponse "text/html"
val _ = print "Hello, world!\n"

SML/CGI also includes the world's most naive template compiler. A template is a plain text file with inline SML code delimited by <% ... %> blocks. Anything inside such a block must be a valid top-level SML statement. If you just wish to echo a string, you can use the syntax <%% foobar %>, which will wrap foobar in an appropriate call to print.

The CGI structure is open by default in templates.

A minimal template might be:

<h1><%% title %></h1>
Hello, <%% content %>

A template hello.mlt is compiled to two files: hello.cgi.sml and hello.cgi.mlb with the command:

smlcgic hello.mlt

One might build a full application by having an additional file that invokes the template:

val _ = CGI.startResponse "text/html"
val _ = Template.render ("Some Title", "world!")

The CGI structure provides the function: getParam : string -> string for retrieving query string values, e.g.:

val _ = print (getParam "greeting" ^ ", world\n")

No effort is made to sanitise incoming data, and URIs escape sequences are decoded with little checking. Beware.