Can't Run Offline script testing

[Jiggerman]

Hey Folks,

In was wondering if you could help? I wrote a CGI script in Perl, but when I try and run in through the debugger, the line
"(offline mode: enter name=value pairs on standard input)"
Comes up. when I then put in the value pairs I can't get the script to run.

From my recollection you then press Ctrl and D (in Windows) to signify the end of file and the script runs with the inputed value pairs. but this doens't seem to work.

any idea's??

Thanks
Jiggerman

 

[siberian]

It should be control-D yea. thats what I always have used.

 

[Jiggerman]

Yeah that's what I thought and what is documented on the web, but it just comes up with the ^D symbol.

It's such a pain to write a script that works normally in Perl, but not when I try and use CGI with it.

Any help would be majorly appreciated!

 

[siberian]

What problems are you seeing when you run it as cgi? Like actual cgi in the browser that is.

 

[Jiggerman]

Well when I try it running on the server, the script returns a page saying "The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers." (The script has misbehaved, gee and I thought it was my fault!). I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I think I could debug it if I was given the chance.

The problem I am facing is when I test it in Dos on my PC. I don't seem to be able to finish the name value pairs section.

Is very wierd

Thanks for any help

 

[siberian]

can you paste your script? Are you outputting headers?

 

[Jiggerman]

well the whole HTML file is a template (from Dreamweaver)that is loaded in and a search and replace system is done to put in the values. This works through the Perl interpreter fine (without the "use CGI;" etc code) . But can't get it to pass through with the "use CGI parts".

I'm pretty sure it's not the script, it isn't printing out any of the debugging messages that I put in past the "new CGI Command.

Here is some abreviated code:

use CGI;
print "Hello\n"; <-----PRINTS THIS
my $q = new CGI;
print "Hello\n"; <-----NOT THIS
print $query->dump;

my $title = $q->param("title");
my $author = $q->param("author");
my @content = $q->param("content");

print "\t\$title = $title \n\t\$author = $author\n";<-----NOR THIS
print "\t\@content = @content\n";

#print
my @template = importTemplate();<-- Imports template from outside file

my @htmlFile = createHTML();<-- Merges Template with values from form

saveHTMLFile(@htmlFile); <-- saves the HTML file
displayHTMLFile(@htmlFile); <-- displays the HTML file

sub displayHTMLFile{
	my @finished = @_;

	foreach my $line (@finished){
		print "$line";
	}
}

sub saveHTMLFile{

	my @finished = @_;
	open(HTMLFILE, ">tester.html");

	foreach my $line (@finished){
		print HTMLFILE "$line";
	}
	print "Saved File\n";
	close(HTMLFILE);
}

Does this give you any clues??

I'm assuming it's not a problem with the script, perhaps I am wrong.

It just doesn't seem to leave the value pairs part of the interpreter.

Thanks very much for any help (god nows I alway's need it)!

 

[siberian]

Change

use CGI;
print "Hello\n"; <-----PRINTS THIS
my $q = new CGI;
print "Hello\n"; <-----NOT THIS
print $query->dump;

to

use CGI;
my $q = new CGI;
print $query->header; # This is the header output
print "Hello\n"; <-----PRINTS THIS

print "Hello\n"; <-----NOT THIS
print $query->dump;

You need to print a header out or the browser will choke. Just like the error said...

Also note that you are initializing '$q' but you call '$query->dump'

 

[Jiggerman]

Thanks very much for the suggestion, but I'm afraid that it didn't work.

The same error comes up when running through the server, and the same problem comes about when I try running it through DOS.

I can't see what the problem is.

Thanks

 

[siberian]

Do this

telnet to port 80 on your webserver and type

'GET /YOURCGI'<enter>
<enter>

The output will scroll to screen. Paste that here.

 

[arn0ld]

yet another reason for
use strict;

use CGI;
print "Hello\n"; <-----PRINTS THIS
my $q = new CGI;
print "Hello\n"; <-----NOT THIS
print $query->dump;

What is this "$query" variable??

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use CGI qw/:standard/;
print header;
print "Hello\n";
print "Hello\n";
print br,"Hello";

BTW, need at least 1 argument to test.
perl script xxxx
perl script par1="1111"

 

[siberian]

Yea thats aproblem. I pointed it out here

Also note that you are initializing '$q' but you call '$query->dump'

but I kept his convention in my version. Switch to $q or $query and you'll be set.

ALWAYS 'use string;', its a lifesaver as arn0ld points out.

 

[arn0ld]

Other than $q/$query (that's "use strict"), the main problem is no
html headers.
"print header;" solves this.

 

[siberian]

I guess my examples are hard to read I reiterate :

use CGI;
my $q = new CGI;
print $query->header; # This is the header output
print "Hello\n"; <-----PRINTS THIS

print "Hello\n"; <-----NOT THIS
print $query->dump;

simply adding the header and fixing the $q/$query stuff ( as noted ) will resolve this problem.

Maybe we are just saying the same stuff over and over again

 

[arn0ld]

some same,some different:

With my CGI.pm:
use CGI ;
print header;

Does Not work,

use CGI qw/:standard/;
print header;

Does

 

[siberian]

Yes, thats why I specifically invoke the CGI object so it works. If you read all the code :

use CGI;
my $query = new CGI;
print $query->header;

It does work, try it, you'll see. Just a different approach ,both are valid.

 

[arn0ld]

a very good illustration of the differences between "classic" OO programming (yours) with encapsulation

and PERL's somewhat fractured OO with EXPORT'ed methods and variables.

This has made me more cognizant of the differences.

 

[ChrisHunt]

Here's my theory

use CGI;
print "Hello\n"; <-----PRINTS THIS
my $q = new CGI;
print "Hello\n"; <-----NOT THIS

Note that the first "Hello" prints, even though no HTML headers have been sent, but the second one does not. It seems pretty clear that the line it's choking on is the "new CGI" one. Significant, also, is that arn0ld's (working) solution doesn't use the OO syntax.

It looks to me that you have an old version of the CGI.pm library installed (heck, you may well have an old version of Perl installed too) that predates the object syntax. This needn't be a problem - the old style works just fine (I find it easier to read too), but you may run into problems using other people's scripts "out of the box".

-- Chris Hunt

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

 

[PROFESSORSPARKIE]

Getting back to the start of the question and running under DOS.

This may be the reason the the cgi-perl communication is failing in a DOS environment. I tried for a long time a couple of years ago and found the following in pieces & parts in different readings..

First, the technique for communication between two processes in the cgi interface is through “pipes/filter-techniques” communications. That is one way Unix/Linux can pass data from one process to another even across systems..

In DOS, filters can be used to pass data from one program to another in one DOS process. DOS is not a multi process environment. Each program runs as the only process sequentially. In a DOS windows virtual box, programs that are written using stdin/stdout can pass data from one to the other but it is still limited to a single process because that is all DOS was ever written to support.

Example: DIR *.* | FIND “02-04" | MORE

has multiple programs using standard pipes for data passing. Sine these programs do not directly interact with the Windows system. They talk to the virtual DOS box which is a single process to Windows.

To do what you want you need two windows applications as separate processes using the pipes support.

Try installing a local server(Apache or Personal Web Server from Microsoft.) Then the browser(a 32 bit windows application) can process a HTML file in a form and pass the data using STDIN/STDOUT) to another windows 32 bit process (your local server) which can pass it to your perl program using one of the standard reads.

EXAMPLE: while(<STDIN>) {??????????????????????}

I did this on Win/ME but WINDOWS/XP may have better support. Just get away from DOS boxes using pipes between processes.

There is a significant difference in a program and a process. A Windows program(a process) can start other programs/threads as part of the process or can start other dependent/independent processes in the Windows system.

Perl supports pipes between programs in a DOS virtual box but has no way to pass that to another process.

 

[arcnon]

a possible solution

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

system('clear');
use strict;


my $title = "5 things to do";
my $author = "bob";
my @content = "I sure hate spam";

if(@ARGV){
#called ./name_of_script joe blow fdshjfklggfdsgfhfjklgfsdgfdshjklfdgfsdhjkl
$title = shift(@ARGV);
$author = shift(@ARGV);
@content = shift(@ARGV);
print "argvs @ARGV\n";

}
else{
# called

http://?/cgi-bin/test.pl?title=joe&author=blow&content=test

use CGI;
use CGI qw/:standard/;
print header;

print "prams \n";
$title = param('title');
$author = param('author');
@content = param('content');

}

print "\t\$title = $title \n\t\$author = $author\n";
print "\t\@content = @content\n";


my @template = ('im a template','what is your name');
my @hFile = ('how you doing','good and you');

sFile(@hFile);
dFile(@hFile);

sub dFile{
my (@finished) = @_;

foreach my $line (@finished){
print "$line";
}
}

sub sFile{
my (@finished) = @_;
open(FILE, ">tester.html") or die "$!";

foreach my $line (@finished){
print FILE "$line"or die "$!";
}
print "Saved File\n";
close(FILE)or die "$!";
}