ReadParse() - Parsing Web Form Input Values

Perl Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

Dr. Herong Yang, Version 5.10

Perl Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Integrating Perl with Apache Web Server

∟ReadParse() - Parsing Web Form Input Values

This section describes functions provided in the CGI library, cgi-bin.pl. It also provides a tutorial example on how to use the ReadParse() to parse Web form input values and other functions.

If you look at the source code of cgi-bin.pl, you will see that it offers the following functions:

ReadParse(*in) - Parses form input values submitted by the GET or POST method and store them in the associative array %in as name-value pairs.
PrintHeader - Returns the HTTP response header line.
PrintTop($title) - Returns the top portion of the HTML document with the given title string.
PrintBot - Returns the bottom portion of the HTML document.
PrintVariables(*in); - Returns name-value pairs stored in the associative array %in formatted with HTML tags.

Here is a tutorial example on how to use functions provided in cgi-bin.pl:

#!c:/local/perl/bin/perl.exe
#- ReadParse_Test.pl
#- Copyright (c) 2006 by Dr. Herong Yang, http://www.herongyang.com/
#
require "cgi-lib.pl";
if (&ReadParse(*in)) {
   print &PrintHeader;
   print &HtmlTop("Input Values Received");
   print &PrintVariables(*in);
   print &HtmlBot;
} else {
   print &PrintHeader;
   print &HtmlTop("User Registration Form");
   print <<EOM;
<form method=POST>
<p>Username: <input name="username"><br>
Password: <input type=password name="password"></p>
<p><input type=submit></p>
</form>
EOM
   print &HtmlBot;
}

Save it at C:\local\apache\cgi-bin\ReadParse_Test.pl

And run it in a browser at: http://localhost/cgi-bin/ReadParse_Test.pl

Table of Contents

About This Book

Perl on Linux Systems

ActivePerl on Windows Systems

Data Types: Values and Variables

Expressions, Operations and Simple Statements

User Defined Subroutines

Perl Built-in Debugger

Name Spaces and Perl Module Files

Symbolic (or Soft) References