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Perl, CGI, sessions - complete application template second steps
State and Cookies example from a Well House Consultants training course
More on State and Cookies [link]
Source code: sweeter.pl Module: P407
#!/usr/bin/env perl

=head1 Perl web application framework - sessions and hidden fields

=head2 Introduction to general code

This is a demonstration program showing which provides the shell
framework for a web based CGI application written in Perl.

This example if the second of three - known as "sweeter". The other
two examples, also downloadable from http://www.wellho.net, are
known as sweet and sweetest. You can learn / study sweet and
sweeter to help you understand the principles involved. We suggest
you work with sweetest if you're going to write an application
yourself that's based on the principles illustrated here.

=item 1. read any incoming form

=item 2. Use the value read to pick up the session

=item 3. Do any work to analyse inputs and validate them

=item 4. Do work to prepare for next page

=item 5. Save the session

=item 6. Send out the response page

=cut


$fill{"now"} = localtime();
$fill{"title"} = "Application Template";

$sessdir = "../../../sessions";

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

# item 1. read any incoming form
#-------------------------------

collect_form();

# item 2. Use the value read to pick up the session
#--------------------------------------------------

if ($form{plsess}) {
        $sessname = $form{plsess};
        open (FHS,"$sessdir/$sessname.ses");
        while (<FHS>) {
                chop;
                ($name,$val) = split;
                $val =~ tr/+/ /;
                $val =~ s/%(..)/pack("C",hex($1))/eg;
                $session{$name} = $val;
        }
} else {
        $sessname = $$.time();
        # Take the opportunity of a new session to clean up stale ones
        opendir (DH,$sessdir);
        while ($fname = readdir DH) {
                next if ($fname =~ /^\./);
                if (-M "$sessdir/$fname" > 0.5) {
                        unlink "$sessdir/$fname";
                }
        }
}
$fill{plsess} = $sessname;
$stepnumber = $session{step};

# Inputs in %session and %form translate to %session and %fill

# item 3. Do any work to analyse inputs and validate them
#--------------------------------------------------------

$aok = 1;
$errstr = "";
if ($stepnumber == 0) { # Initialisation
        # Move on to next step - prepare for page 1
        $stepnumber = 1;
} elsif ($stepnumber == 1) {
        if ($form{yourname} !~ /\w/) {
                $aok = 0;
                $errstr .= "name must include a word character<br>";
        } else {
                $session{name} = $form{yourname};
        }
        if ($form{youremail} !~ /@/) {
                $aok = 0;
                $errstr .= "email must include an @ character<br>";
        } else {
                $session{email} = $form{youremail};
        }
        $stepnumber++ if ($aok);
} elsif ($stepnumber == 2) {
        if ($form{yourtown} !~ /\w/) {
                $aok = 0;
                $errstr .= "Town must include a letter<br>";
        } else {
                $session{town} = $form{yourtown};
        }
        if ($form{yourpostcode} !~ /^[A-Z]{1,2}[1-9]/) {
                $aok = 0;
                $errstr .= "Postcode invalid<br>";
        } else {
                $session{postcode} = $form{yourpostcode};
        }
        $stepnumber++ if ($aok);
} else {
}

# item 4. Do work to prepare for next page
#-----------------------------------------

$fill{status} = "You are at page $stepnumber of 3";
$fill{stuff} = "Results will appear here";
$fill{errstr} = $errstr;

if ($stepnumber == 1) {
        $fill{"form"} = "name: <input name=yourname value=\"".webify($form{yourname})."\"><br>";
        $fill{"form"} .= "email: <input name=youremail value=\"".webify($form{youremail})."\"><br>";
} elsif ($stepnumber == 2) {
        $fill{"form"} = "town: <input name=yourtown value=\"".webify($form{yourtown})."\"><br>";
        $fill{"form"} .= "postcode: <input name=yourpostcode value=\"".webify($form{yourpostcode})."\"><br>";
} elsif ($stepnumber == 3) {
        $fill{stuff} = "<b>Hello ".webify($session{name})." from ".webify($session{town})."<br>";
        $fill{stuff} .= "email ".webify($session{email})." pc ".webify($session{postcode})."</b><br>";
        $stepnumber = 0;
} else {
}

# item 5. Save the session
#-------------------------

$session{step} = $stepnumber;
open (FHS,">$sessdir/$sessname.ses");
foreach $name (keys %session) {
        $val = $session{$name};
        $val =~ s/%/%25/g;
        $val =~ s/\+/%2b/g;
        $val =~ s/\n/%0a/g;
        print FHS "$name $val\n";
        }
close FHS;

# item 6. Send out the response page
#-----------------------------------
# Complete the output template and send it to the user

$fill{step} = $stepnumber;

while (<DATA>) {
        s/%(\w+)%/$fill{$1}/g;
        print;
        }

################## Standard functions

=head2 Standard functions

Note that the following standard functions would be placed into a
separate file (a module) for a live application. For the purpose of
this demo, we've put everyting into the one file

=cut


sub webify {
        $_ = $_[0];
        s/&/&amp;/g;
        s/</&lt;/g;
        s/>/&gt;/g;
        s/"/&quot;/g;
        return $_;
        }

sub collect_form {

if ($ENV{"REQUEST_METHOD"} eq "POST") {
        read(STDIN,$buffer,$ENV{"CONTENT_LENGTH"});
        $form{"method"} = "POST";
} else {
        $buffer = $ENV{QUERY_STRING};
        $form{"method"} = "GET";
}

@fof = split(/&/,$buffer);
foreach $field(@fof) {
        ($name,$value) = split(/=/,$field);
        $value =~ tr/+/ /;
        $value =~ s/%([a-fA-F0-9]{2})/pack("C",hex($1))/eg;
        if ($form{$name}) {
                $form{$name} .= "\n$value";
        } else {
                $form{$name} = $value;
                }
        }
}
##################################################################

# After the __END__ we'll place the template for all response pages

__END__
<html><head>
<title>%title% - Well House Consultants demo</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor=#CCFFFF>
<h1>Demonstration - %title%</h1>
This is the introductory piece of text about this application.<hr>
This is the current status:<br><br>%status%<hr>
<font color=red>%errstr%</font>
<form method=POST>This is the next form
<input name=plsess type=hidden value=%plsess%><br>
%form%
<input type=submit></form><hr>
Here are your results:<br><br>%stuff%<hr>
Copyright statement, etc .. %now% ...<br>
debug info: page no. %step%, session %plsess%
</body></html>

Learn about this subject
This module and example are covered on our public Using Perl on the Web course. If you have a group of three or more trainees who need to learn the subject, we can also arrange a private or on site course for you.

Books covering this topic
Yes. We have over 700 books in our library. Books covering Perl are listed here and when you've selected a relevant book we'll link you on to Amazon to order.

Other Examples
This example comes from our "State and Cookies" training module. You'll find a description of the topic and some other closely related examples on the "State and Cookies" module index page.

Full description of the source code
You can learn more about this example on the training courses listed on this page, on which you'll be given a full set of training notes.

Many other training modules are available for download (for limited use) from our download centre under an Open Training Notes License.

Other resources
• Our Solutions centre provides a number of longer technical articles.
• Our Opentalk forum archive provides a question and answer centre.
The Horse's mouth provides a daily tip or thought.
• Further resources are available via the resources centre.
• All of these resources can be searched through through our search engine
• And there's a global index here.

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