Please help with a Perl Script

Byager · Dec 30, 1999

I am NOT a Perl programmer. I have a script that I need to modify and I am pretty clueless. Below I will list the script and maybe someone can help me understand it better. I am a programmer so I understand some of it. The script is an email form script. My client wants me to make the fields NOT be required. Any and all help is appreciated. 
 
 
#!/usr/bin/perl 
 
require '<A HREF="

http://www.pl"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.pl</A>';

$posted=&getformvars(*FORM); 
 
$mailprog='/usr/sbin/sendmail'; 
 
$instructions_url="<A HREF="

http://www.traveller.com/tech/start/emailform/&quot"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.traveller.com/tech/start/emailform/&quot</A>;;

if(!($FORM{'mailto'})) { 
&bounce($instructions_url); 
exit 0; 
} 
 
#HERE 
 
if($FORM{'required'}) { 
$required=$FORM{'required'}; 
$required=~ s/\[//g; 
$required=~ s/\]//g; 
@req=split(/ /, $required); 
$counter=0; 
while($counter <= $#req) { 
if(!($FORM{$req[$counter]})) { 
&failure; 
} 
$counter++; 
} 
} 
 
open(MAIL, "¦ $mailprog ".$FORM{'mailto'}) ¦¦ die "Can't open $mailprog!\n"; 
print MAIL "Reply-to: ".$FORM{'mailto'}."\n"; 
print MAIL "Errors-to: ".$FORM{'mailto'}."\n"; 
print MAIL "From: ".$FORM{'mailto'}."\n"; 
print MAIL "To: ".$FORM{'mailto'}."\n"; 
if($FORM{'subject'}) { 
print MAIL "Subject: ".$FORM{'subject'}."\n"; 
} else { 
print MAIL "Subject: E-Mail Form Results\n"; 
} 
print MAIL "========================================\n\n"; 
 
$counter=1; 
while($FORM{'m'.$counter}) { 
$theline=$FORM{'m'.$counter}; 
$theline=~ s/\[([A-Za-z0-9]*)\]/$FORM{$1}/g; 
print MAIL $theline."\n"; 
$counter++; 
} 
 
print MAIL "\n========================================\n"; 
print MAIL "Entry made from ".$ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'}."\n"; 
print MAIL "Referring URL: ".$ENV{'HTTP_REFERER'}."\n"; 
 
close(MAIL); 
 
&success; 
 
exit 0; 
 
sub success { 
if($FORM{'success'}) { 
&bounce($FORM{'success'}); 
} else { 
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; 
print "<html>\n<body>\n<center>Thanks!</center>\n</body>\n</html>\n"; 
} 
return; 
} 
 
sub failure { 
if($FORM{'failure'}) { 
&bounce($FORM{'failure'}); 
} else { 
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; 
print "<html>\n<body>\n<center>You didn't enter the required informationPlease <a href=\"".$ENV{'HTTP_REFERER'}."\">return</a> to the form.</center>\n</body>\n</html>\n"; 
} 
exit 0; 
} 
 
sub bounce { 
local ($url)=@_; 
print "Content-type: text/html\n"; 
print "Location: ".$url."\n\n"; 
print "<html><body></body></html>\n"; 
return; 
} 
 
 
Thanks to all, 
 
Brian Yager

heidi · Jan 2, 2000

I'm not completely sure, but suspect that if you comment out: 
 
 
 
if(!($FORM{'mailto'})) { 
&bounce($instructions_url); 
exit 0; 
} 
 
then it wouldn't kick the user to the instruction page. You can comment lines out just by adding # in front of them. Just be sure to comment out each of these lines. I think that will remove the requirements to enter something into the mailto field. 
 
-- Heidi

John1 · Jan 3, 2000

Here again, I'm not completely certain but I'd look in the

http://www.pl

library file you require. 
 
As Heidi suggests, you can comment out the check for the mailto field. That would eliminate that one source of error but then again a script that sends mail without a mailto address would be pretty useless

It appears to me that

http://www.pl

creates a hash called %FORM. If you don't know what a Perl hash is, think of it as a 2 dimensional array with the first dimension being a key string and the second being the value referenced by the key string. So $FORM{'required'} retrieves the value in the hash referenced by the key string 'required'. 
 
I've added comments to the code below. 
 
# if the value referenced by $FORM{'required'} is not null 
# enter this block of code 
# so the quick and dirty solution is to comment out this 
# block of code but I think you can customize things 
# so read on. 
 
if($FORM{'required'}) { 
 
# now store the value referenced by 'required' 
# in the variable $required 
# I assume this value will be a string containing the 
# names of all the required fields 
# e.g. $required='[field1] [field2] [field3]' 
 
$required=$FORM{'required'}; 
 
# replace any [ chars with null 
$required=~ s/\[//g; 
 
# replace any ] chars with null 
$required=~ s/\]//g; 
 
# now $required should look like this 
# 'field1 field2 field3' 
# split $required on the spaces and fill the values into 
# array @req 
@req=split(/ /, $required); 
 
$counter=0; 
 
# while $counter is <= the subscript of the last 
# element in the array, loop. 
# if there are 3 elements in @req (0,1,2), $#req == 2 
while($counter <= $#req) { 
 
# here again we're using a string to reference a value 
# in the %FORM hash, if the value is null, meaning the 
# field in the form was not completed, we call the 
# failure subroutine 
# so, if the first element in our array is 'field1' 
# the first time through $FORM{$req[$counter]} == 
# $FORM{$req[0]} == $FORM{'field1'} 
if(!($FORM{$req[$counter]})) { 
&failure; 
} 
$counter++; 
} 
} 
 
So as I say, the key is the definition of the hash value $FORM{'required'} this should be a string containing all the required fields. 
 
Remember, print is your buddy. Print out the values in the hash and the array. Once you figure things out, just comment the prints back out. If you get a lot of prints, add a $debug variable that turns them on and off and comment/uncomment it at the top of the script. 
 
e.g. 
 
$debug=

John1 · Jan 3, 2000

Interesting, the posting software picked up on my $debug="TRUE" and truncated the response. 
 
foreach $key (keys(%FORM)) 
{ 
print "key $key = " . $FORM{$key} . "\n" ; 
} 
 
Hope that helps.

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Please help with a Perl Script

Byager

Programmer

heidi

Programmer

John1

Programmer

John1

Programmer

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