How to output plain text?

gnubie · Aug 22, 2003

I have a single Perl script with a dispatcher which I want to display either an HTML FORM or the plain text results.

FORM displays properly. Clicking Submit results in a download dialog box, instead of just displaying the plain text results (in a browser window). Using print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n"; doesn't work. How can I just display plain text (which contains HTML) but with NO HTML interpretation?

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# Test text/plain
#

use CGI qw/:standard/;
use strict;   # we need every bit of help we can get

# Dispatcher
# Get operation
my $operation = param('oP'); # DISPLAYLISTING or DISPLAYFORM

if ($operation eq &quot;&quot;) {
  $operation = &quot;DISPLAYFORM&quot;; # default
}
if ($operation eq &quot;DISPLAYFORM&quot;) {
  displayForm();
} elsif ($operation eq &quot;DISPLAYLISTING&quot;) {
  displayListing();
} else {
  die &quot;INTERNAL ERROR: $operation is an unknown operation&quot;;
}
exit(0);

sub displayForm {
  my $size=80;
  print &quot;Content-type: text/html\n\n&quot;;
  print <<EOM;
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC &quot;-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN&quot;>
<html>
<head>
	<title>Display Form</title>
</head>

<h1 align=&quot;center&quot;>Listing Generator</h1>

<table border=0>
<form action=&quot;&quot; method=&quot;POST&quot;>
  <tr>
    <td> </td><td><input name=&quot;oP&quot; type=&quot;hidden&quot; value=&quot;DISPLAYLISTING&quot;></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Title</td><td><input name=&quot;title&quot; type=&quot;text&quot; value=&quot;Jar&quot; size=80></td>
  </tr>
    <tr>
    <td colspan=2><input type=&quot;submit&quot; value=&quot;Submit&quot;></td>
  </tr>
</form>
</table>
</body>
</html>
EOM
}

sub displayListing {
  print &quot;Content-type: text/plain\n\n&quot;;
  my $title=param('title');
  print &quot;<h1>Title: $title</h1>\n&quot;;
}
1

PaulTEG · Aug 22, 2003

G,

What webserver, OS etc, coz some are more forgiving than others

--Paul

gnubie · Aug 23, 2003

Local PC web server is Xitami, remote server is Apache. Both exibit the same symptoms. OS=XP; Browser=IE6.

c4n · Aug 24, 2003

Try using the encoded characters in your print statements:

Instead of < use & lt;
Instead of > use & gt;
Instead of " use & quot;

IMPORTANT: There must be NO space between "&" and the rest of the code (lt; gt; and qout

, I placed space here because it doesn't display otherwise.

gnubie · Aug 24, 2003

Yes, I could re-code the output, but I was hoping for simpler solution. Any idea why

Code:

print &quot;Content-type text/plain/n/n&quot;;

at the beginning of the output doesn't work?

c4n · Aug 25, 2003

Hmm, what if you print the output in a text file and then make a redirect to it?

open(TXTFILE, ">temporary.txt&quot

;
print TXTFILE "<h1>Title</h1>\n";
etc ... print all the code
close(TXTFILE);

print "Location:

http://www.domain.com/path/temporary.txt\n\n";

(You'll probably need to write to temporary.txt outside the cgi-bin in order to display it then)

PaulTEG · Aug 25, 2003

Code:

print &quot;Content-type text/plain/n/n&quot;;

Should be

print &quot;Content-type text/plain\n\n&quot;;

HTH
--Paul

PaulTEG · Aug 25, 2003

Code:

print &quot;Content-type text/plain/n/n&quot;;

Should be

print &quot;Content-type: text/plain\n\n&quot;;

HTH
--Paul

tviman · Aug 25, 2003

If you expect to view it through a browser, you're going to have to have at least "some" HTML coding. You're browser has a really tough time without it.

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!

gnubie · Aug 25, 2003

Update:
1. print "location: ..." didn't work. It just displayed the web page.
2. Content-type text/plain didn't work. It just printed and was apparently ignored.
3. I ended up writing the output to a file, reading it back in and substituting the character entities for the angle brackets as c4n suggested, and print to screen.

Thanks for your help.

Dick

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How to output plain text?

gnubie

Programmer

PaulTEG

Technical User

gnubie

Programmer

c4n

Programmer

gnubie

Programmer

c4n

Programmer

PaulTEG

Technical User

PaulTEG

Technical User

tviman

Programmer

gnubie

Programmer

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