HTML Form 1 -> Perl -> return response to HTML form 2

Oleks · #1 (**permalink**) 10-17-06, 06:26 AM

Hi,
I am trying to return response from perl script to the HTML form. Those HTML form and perl file are located on a different servers. HTML form 1 is sending text to the form.pl file. File is processing that text. But, I do not know how to return response from perl file to the HTML form 2. Can somebody help me with this?

The script for HTML form is

Code:

<HTML>
   <HEAD>
     <TITLE>HTML form/TITLE>
   </HEAD>
   <BODY>
      <FORM NAME="form1" ACTION="http://www.domain.com/cgi-bin/form.pl" METHOD="POST">
          <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Test" VALUE="" SIZE="18" MAXLENGTH="50"> <br>
          <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" NAME="submit" VALUE="Go!">
      </FORM>

      <FORM NAME="form2" METHOD="POST">
          is: <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Test" VALUE="" SIZE="16" MAXLENGTH="50">
      </FORM>
   </BODY>
</HTML>

The script for perl file form.pl is

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

use LWP::Simple;

$a = <STDIN>;

# Do something simple
$b = substr ($a, 5, length($a)-18);

# print "Befor $a\n";
# print "After $b\n";

# How to return $b results to the HTML Form 2

Drunken Perl Coder · #2 (**permalink**) 10-17-06, 02:22 PM

You probably want to consider using javascript if the data being processed in form1 and entered into form2 is nothing that needs to be done on the server.

Oleks · #3 (**permalink**) 10-17-06, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drunken Perl Coder

You probably want to consider using javascript if the data being processed in form1 and entered into form2 is nothing that needs to be done on the server.

Hi Drunken Perl Coder,
The real perl script is doing a lot of calculations.
I just simplify example of my perl file in the first post.
So, I need to stick to perl script.

Any idea how to make this
form1 -> perl script ???-> form 2
business works?

Alex

curbview.com · #4 (**permalink**) 10-17-06, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oleks

Hi Drunken Perl Coder,
The real perl script is doing a lot of calculations.
I just simplify example of my perl file in the first post.
So, I need to stick to perl script.

Any idea how to make this
form1 -> perl script ???-> form 2
business works?

Alex

Why not have your perl script print form2 in the browser? From your question, you are trying to use PHP methods while using perl. K.I.S.S.

Oleks · #5 (**permalink**) 10-17-06, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by curbview.com

Why not have your perl script print form2 in the browser? From your question, you are trying to use PHP methods while using perl. K.I.S.S.

Hi curbview.com,
Well …
That is maybe because I do not know how to do this.

Can you help me with this by modifying an existing HTML and perl codes.

Drunken Perl Coder · #6 (**permalink**) 10-17-06, 07:38 PM

a simple example based on your simple example:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI qw/:standard/;
my $Test = param('Test') || undef;

print header,
      start_html('HTML form'),
qq~<FORM NAME="form1" METHOD="POST">
    <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Test" VALUE="" SIZE="18" MAXLENGTH="50"> <br>
    <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" NAME="submit" VALUE="Go!">
</FORM>

<FORM NAME="form2" METHOD="POST">
is: <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="blah" VALUE="$Test" SIZE="16" MAXLENGTH="50">
</FORM>~,
end_html;

The script prints the forms instead of trying to use a static html page. This is much simpler than what you propose unless you switched to PHP.

Oleks · #7 (**permalink**) 10-17-06, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drunken Perl Coder

a simple example based on your simple example:
The script prints the forms instead of trying to use a static html page. This is much simpler than what you propose unless you switched to PHP.

Hi Drunken Perl Coder,
Thank you for your help.
But ….
In your example, perl file will run first until the end of the script and will not wait for data entering in Form 1. Only after this first run user will be able to enter something into the form 1.
How to solve this.

Try this code and you will see my point.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI qw/:standard/;
my $Test = param('Test') || undef;

print header,
      start_html('HTML form'),
qq~<FORM NAME="form1" METHOD="POST">
    <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="Test" VALUE="" SIZE="18" MAXLENGTH="50"> <br>
    <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" NAME="submit" VALUE="Go!">
</FORM>

<FORM NAME="form2" METHOD="POST">
is: <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="blah" VALUE="$Test" SIZE="16" MAXLENGTH="50">
</FORM>~,
end_html;


print "First run\n";

Drunken Perl Coder · #8 (**permalink**) 10-18-06, 02:42 AM

CGI scripts do not work like command line scripts where the script will wait for user input. You could simulate that behavior by not printing form2 if there is no data recieved from form1.

Oleks · #9 (**permalink**) 10-18-06, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drunken Perl Coder

CGI scripts do not work like command line scripts where the script will wait for user input. You could simulate that behavior by not printing form2 if there is no data recieved from form1.

Hi Drunken Perl Coder,
Yes. Thank you.
This is a perfect idea, not to run that part of the script where all calculations are, if form1 is empty. I can do this by inserting if-else to the perl script to check is form1 an empty.

One more question.
My goal is to display results of perl script into the HTML page.
Is any way how to call perl script from HTML page and to return results from perl script to the HTML page?

Drunken Perl Coder · #10 (**permalink**) 10-18-06, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oleks

My goal is to display results of perl script into the HTML page.
Is any way how to call perl script from HTML page and to return results from perl script to the HTML page?

Why does it have to be a static html page? You can do that but life gets harder when you want to do that with perl. You will be better off using PHP for something like that.

HTML Form 1 -> Perl -> return response to HTML form 2

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