=head1 NAME
-perlfaq9 - Networking ($Revision: 1.14 $, $Date: 2002/12/06 07:40:11 $)
+perlfaq9 - Networking ($Revision: 1.24 $, $Date: 2005/10/13 19:43:13 $)
=head1 DESCRIPTION
to Perl, and has its own FAQs and tutorials, and usenet group,
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi
-The original CGI specification is at: http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/
-
-Current best-practice RFC draft at: http://CGI-Spec.Golux.Com/
+The CGI specification is outlined in an informational RFC:
+http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3875
Other relevant documentation listed in: http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
=head2 How do I automate an HTML form submission?
+If you are doing something complex, such as moving through many pages
+and forms or a web site, you can use C<WWW::Mechanize>. See its
+documentation for all the details.
+
If you're submitting values using the GET method, create a URL and encode
the form using the C<query_form> method:
consistent OO interface to these files, regardless of how they're
stored. Databases may be text, dbm, Berkeley DB or any database with
a DBI compatible driver. HTTPD::UserAdmin supports files used by the
-`Basic' and `Digest' authentication schemes. Here's an example:
+"Basic" and "Digest" authentication schemes. Here's an example:
use HTTPD::UserAdmin ();
HTTPD::UserAdmin
=head2 How do I decode a CGI form?
-You use a standard module, probably CGI.pm. Under no circumstances
-should you attempt to do so by hand!
-
-You'll see a lot of CGI programs that blindly read from STDIN the number
-of bytes equal to CONTENT_LENGTH for POSTs, or grab QUERY_STRING for
-decoding GETs. These programs are very poorly written. They only work
-sometimes. They typically forget to check the return value of the read()
-system call, which is a cardinal sin. They don't handle HEAD requests.
-They don't handle multipart forms used for file uploads. They don't deal
-with GET/POST combinations where query fields are in more than one place.
-They don't deal with keywords in the query string.
-
-In short, they're bad hacks. Resist them at all costs. Please do not be
-tempted to reinvent the wheel. Instead, use the CGI.pm or CGI_Lite.pm
-(available from CPAN), or if you're trapped in the module-free land
-of perl1 .. perl4, you might look into cgi-lib.pl (available from
-http://cgi-lib.stanford.edu/cgi-lib/ ).
-
-Make sure you know whether to use a GET or a POST in your form.
-GETs should only be used for something that doesn't update the server.
-Otherwise you can get mangled databases and repeated feedback mail
-messages. The fancy word for this is ``idempotency''. This simply
-means that there should be no difference between making a GET request
-for a particular URL once or multiple times. This is because the
-HTTP protocol definition says that a GET request may be cached by the
-browser, or server, or an intervening proxy. POST requests cannot be
-cached, because each request is independent and matters. Typically,
-POST requests change or depend on state on the server (query or update
-a database, send mail, or purchase a computer).
+(contributed by brian d foy)
+
+Use the CGI.pm module that comes with Perl. It's quick,
+it's easy, and it actually does quite a bit of work to
+ensure things happen correctly. It handles GET, POST, and
+HEAD requests, multipart forms, multivalued fields, query
+string and message body combinations, and many other things
+you probably don't want to think about.
+
+It doesn't get much easier: the CGI module automatically
+parses the input and makes each value available through the
+C<param()> function.
+
+ use CGI qw(:standard);
+
+ my $total = param( 'price' ) + param( 'shipping' );
+
+ my @items = param( 'item' ); # multiple values, same field name
+
+If you want an object-oriented approach, CGI.pm can do that too.
+
+ use CGI;
+
+ my $cgi = CGI->new();
+
+ my $total = $cgi->param( 'price' ) + $cgi->param( 'shipping' );
+
+ my @items = $cgi->param( 'item' );
+
+You might also try CGI::Minimal which is a lightweight version
+of the same thing. Other CGI::* modules on CPAN might work better
+for you, too.
+
+Many people try to write their own decoder (or copy one from
+another program) and then run into one of the many "gotchas"
+of the task. It's much easier and less hassle to use CGI.pm.
=head2 How do I check a valid mail address?
You can't, at least, not in real time. Bummer, eh?
Without sending mail to the address and seeing whether there's a human
-on the other hand to answer you, you cannot determine whether a mail
+on the other end to answer you, you cannot determine whether a mail
address is valid. Even if you apply the mail header standard, you
can have problems, because there are deliverable addresses that aren't
RFC-822 (the mail header standard) compliant, and addresses that aren't
(personal ID number). Record the address and PIN (best that it be a
random one) for later processing. In the mail you send, ask them to
include the PIN in their reply. But if it bounces, or the message is
-included via a ``vacation'' script, it'll be there anyway. So it's
+included via a "vacation" script, it'll be there anyway. So it's
best to ask them to mail back a slight alteration of the PIN, such as
with the characters reversed, one added or subtracted to each digit, etc.
=head2 How do I read mail?
While you could use the Mail::Folder module from CPAN (part of the
-MailFolder package) or the Mail::Internet module from CPAN (also part
+MailFolder package) or the Mail::Internet module from CPAN (part
of the MailTools package), often a module is overkill. Here's a
mail sorter.
#!/usr/bin/perl
- # bysub1 - simple sort by subject
+
my(@msgs, @sub);
my $msgno = -1;
$/ = ''; # paragraph reads
while (<>) {
- if (/^From/m) {
+ if (/^From /m) {
/^Subject:\s*(?:Re:\s*)*(.*)/mi;
$sub[++$msgno] = lc($1) || '';
}
=head2 How can I do RPC in Perl?
-A DCE::RPC module is being developed (but is not yet available) and
-will be released as part of the DCE-Perl package (available from
-CPAN). The rpcgen suite, available from CPAN/authors/id/JAKE/, is
-an RPC stub generator and includes an RPC::ONC module.
+(Contributed by brian d foy)
+
+Use one of the RPC modules you can find on CPAN (
+http://search.cpan.org/search?query=RPC&mode=all ).
=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
-Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
-All rights reserved.
+Copyright (c) 1997-2005 Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington, and
+other authors as noted. All rights reserved.
This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff