In deciding whether to use an existing server or create a new server, a critical issue is whether or not you need to use cgi-bin scripts. Most university and commercial servers restrict the use of server-side scripts because these place additional demands on the server computer and can create security holes. The use of a WWW server is facilitated by tools that allow users to search for information without knowing where it is located on the server. One approach uses full-text search engines. These create an index of all the words used in each WWW page.
Searches yield links to all pages that contain a given search term.
HTML includes ways to create on-line forms. The output from a form is an encoded string that includes the name of each field and the value that the user assigned to that field. Form output can be decoded by cgi-bin programs to create new data files or to interact with database software. When coupled to a database, forms are used to update entries in the site personnel directory, biodiversity database and data catalogs. This greatly aids in developing scaleable solutions to common problems of site management by eliminating an input bottleneck.