Making DBI work

[MamaLoca]

I want to learn how to connect and use MySQL from my PERL scripts

I fount a script to test and see if DBI is supported/installed on my webhosts server at

http://perl.about.com/od/perldbiprogramming/l/aa032701a.htm

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use DBI;

print "Here's a list of DBI drivers:\n";

my @available_drivers = DBI->available_drivers('quiet');
my $driver;

foreach $driver (@available_drivers)
{
   print "$driver\n";
}

CHMOD is set 755

it is "SUPPOSED" to do one of two things

If it's NOT there
"Can't locate DBI.pm in @INC (@INC contains: [filepath info, blah, blah, blah])
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at test_dbi.pl line 4."

If it's IS
"Here's a list of DBI drivers:
ADO
ExampleP
Multiplex
Proxy
mysql"

But I get a 500 Internal Server Error

NOW

My host says
"You can upload your Dbi.pl script in the 'cgi-bin' folder under your domain, as it is supported on the server and have the connections to your MySQL database."

But being a clueless newb I have no idea were to look to find out what to do next.

I also don't seem to be able to telnet to my server. It may be I'm doing something wrong with this as well. I have an email to my host about this.

Life would be so much easier if I only had the source code.

 

[MamaLoca]

Ah, well, the telnet issue is answered.

"For security reasons we have blocked SSH, Telnet, and Ping requests on all of our servers. And due to this you are facing problem for using telnet for your account."


Anyone know of a cheap host that supports PHP, PERL (and DBI), and MySQL?



Life would be so much easier if I only had the source code.

 

[fishiface]

The app you've quoted is a command-line app and you are trying to invoke it as a cgi app. Given that you can't get to a command line, the easiest thing is probably just to convert it. If you add a few extra lines, it should produce some acceptable HTML.

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use DBI;
[red]use CGI qw/ standard /;
use CGI::Carp;

print header, start_html, '<pre>';[/red]

print "Here's a list of DBI drivers:\n";

my @available_drivers = DBI->available_drivers('quiet');
my $driver;

foreach $driver (@available_drivers)
{
   print "$driver\n";
} 

[red]print '</pre>', end_html;[/red]

Try this and see how you get on.

f

["]As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.["]
--Maur

 

[MamaLoca]

W00T

Thanks for the tip I finally ended up with

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use DBI;
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp;

my $cgi=new CGI;

print $cgi->header;

print "Here's a list of DBI drivers:\n";

my @available_drivers = DBI->available_drivers('quiet');
my $driver;

foreach $driver (@available_drivers)
{
   print "$driver<br />";
} 

print end_html;

And got

http://www.mamaloca.net/cgi-bin/dbitest.cgi

Here's a list of DBI drivers: DBM
ExampleP
File
Proxy
Sponge
mysql

:::Nila dances around he kitchen:::

Thanks fishiface that was the answer.

Now to get it all to work, LOL, I'm still reserving judgement about whether or not I actually like PERL, I do know I like PHP better, But to say that would be sacrilege in this forum, wouldn't it?

Life would be so much easier if I only had the source code.

 

[fishiface]

Best of luck. Come back if you get stuck. I do so much DBI work that I (quite literally) do it in my sleep these days.

As to perl, believe me: it gets under the skin.

Just some quick notes on your code: You're printing an http header but missing out the html header - you should really print a start_html() after the call to header.

I missed a semicolon in my code. If you

use CGI qw/ [red]:[/red]standard /;

then you don't need to create or use a CGI object. Apologies for that.

Your code

my $driver;
foreach $driver (@available_drivers) {

would be better as

foreach my $driver (@available_drivers)

as [tt]$driver[/tt] is then visible only within the loop, lessening the chance of interactions with the rest of your script. If the loop is clear, as with your one-liner, then using $_ as the default iterater provides a pleasant short-cut.

One syntactic nicety which newcomers to perl often overlook is ability to put loop controls as modifers at the end of a statement rather than in the more normal block form. If you were happy that the contents of your loop were not going to grow, you could recast the loop like this:

my @available_drivers = DBI->available_drivers('quiet');
print $_, br foreach @available_drivers;

or even

 print $_, br foreach DBI->available_drivers('quiet');

...at which point I've got the bug! Can it be a sensible one-liner? Here goes:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use DBI;
use CGI qw/ :standard /;
use CGI::Carp;

print header, start_html,
  h2( 'Here's a list of DBI drivers:' ),
  join( br, DBI->available_drivers('quiet') ),
  end_html;

Now that's why I love perl!

Yours,

f

["]As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.["]
--Maur

 

[MamaLoca]

I can see your lust for the lanquage. I can also see I have much to learn.

As for the loop itself, it was something I found, and didn't "create" it myself. And I appreceate any and all comment of the code so that when I take it apart I can understand it's strengths and shortcomings.



Life would be so much easier if I only had the source code.