I'm in an extensive redesign of my links portal site, and I'd like to not take it down from live status, but still be able to see how the integration is going (I use the old school site_html.pl). Pages like add and modify can be viewed without building the database, as they are simply add.cgi and modify.cgi but they do draw from the site_html.pl file; so I can quickly see how it looks (and modify it if it is not displaying correctly), then upload the old site_html.pl file so people don't see it until it is complete.

So I guess my question is, is does anyone know how to build a home.cgi that simply parses the html in the site_html_home function of site_html.pl like add.cgi and modify.cgi just so I can see if I'm designing everything right around the script (make sure its looking like I want).

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for any help!

Why don't you just install a dev version with a few links and categories in a subdirectory? There, you are able to experiment without touching your main installation.