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Perl & CGI/Questions Answered by Expert Jason Silver
| Subject | Date Asked |
| Perl | 10/13/2011 |
| Q: There is no strict data types in perl as in other high level languages like Java so wouldn't that ... A: I'm sorry I misunderstood the question the first time. I'm not certain this would be a problem if ... | |
| CGI script installation error message | 7/27/2011 |
| Q: Greetings from South Africa and hope you can help me with my small installation problem. I recently ... A: I am not familiar with this script, but it looks like it is trying to write to a file and is not ... | |
| cgi file-Perl language | 1/4/2011 |
| Q: I am writing a cgi in perl language. The whole program contains an html form that has radio buttons ... A: First, give your radio buttons a name, so that when they are selected, and the form is submitted to ... | |
| Enabling support for CGI scripting on Mac OSX | 11/10/2010 |
| Q: I am following steps to do this outlined in 'Blog Design Solutions' I have typed a test file, named ... A: You may have made a mistake with your URL. 1. Is there a web server running on your machine? That's ... | |
| What to use | 8/3/2010 |
| Q: I'm a programmer but I don't have must experience with web development. I would like to develop a ... A: If you want an interactive video game with sprites moving across the screen, etc., as opposed to a ... | |
| GD::Graph and DBI | 5/6/2010 |
| Q: I have some questions regarding GD::Graph and DBI and hope you could aid and guide me along. I have ... A: It's hard to see anything outwardly wrong with this, but my suggestion is to put some print commands ... | |
| Coverting values in PERL | 4/27/2010 |
| Q: I'm new in PERL and hope that you can help me. I'm new to PERL and have done a CGI script which ... A: Sorry, this means the variables weren't declared. Declare them before using like this: my ... | |
| Coverting values in PERL | 4/27/2010 |
| Q: I'm new in PERL and hope that you can help me. I'm new to PERL and have done a CGI script which ... A: > I have a wireless sensor that is collecting data like > temp,light and sound. COOL! > ... | |
| Coverting values in PERL | 4/26/2010 |
| Q: I'm new in PERL and hope that you can help me. I'm new to PERL and have done a CGI script which ... A: This is a bit complex if you don't understand Perl and DBI. I wish I knew more about your situation. ... | |
| Can't find string terminator "END_HTML" anywhere before EOF | 11/23/2009 |
| Q: #!/usr/bin/perl -wT use strict; use CGI; use CGI::Carp qw ( fatalsToBrowser ); use ... A: I personally recommend swapping out the <<END_HTML tag with the qq tag, as follows: print qq~ ... | |
| Perl script - combine arrays/create new array based on header | 11/20/2009 |
| Q: I attempted a few lines of Perl to format some data and have become stuck. I am am slowly learning ... A: Glad the code worked out of the box-- I didn't test it at all. The 'sort by value' is done by using ... | |
| Perl script - combine arrays/create new array based on header | 11/19/2009 |
| Q: I attempted a few lines of Perl to format some data and have become stuck. I am am slowly learning ... A: Though not tested, I would do it this way since you said the file isn't very large: #!/usr/bin/perl ... | |
| Run same perl script on Win and Unix'es | 9/7/2009 |
| Q: I'm writting a perl script for both Win and *nix environments. At this moment I have to code 2 ... A: the way I do this is to set variables at the top of the script which accomodate the differences. ... | |
| How Do I pass a javascript variable to a Perl script? | 8/12/2009 |
| Q: I've tried a million things. Below is the latest. Any time I use value=dayofmonth in the input I get ... A: This is a Javascript question, not a Perl question. But it looks to me that you've got a typo or ... | |
| php flush won't work in IE7 | 7/10/2009 |
| Q: My problem : I want the navigator to start displaying outputs even though the whole page is not ... A: This question is misdirected as this is a Perl forum. However, I do have experience in PHP, and can ... | |
| perl in PHP | 5/8/2009 |
| Q: so I want to know if somehow I can use both of them at the same time? Actually I want to know if I ... A: Yes, it is possible to write a script that can take form input, and then do things on the server. ... | |
| BNB form | 3/18/2009 |
| Q: I've been running a CGI form script made by bignosebird.com for several years without problems ... A: Things usually stop working because something changes somewhere-- I recommend giving your host a ... | |
| forms and CGI | 2/10/2009 |
| Q: I am new to programming and am using dreamweaver. I can create a form, but I get lost on the cgi ... A: I suggest you download a form processing script -- either in PHP or Perl. For example, I give one ... | |
| cgi script issue | 2/3/2009 |
| Q: I have created a form using a script that I got from Bignosebird.com, it is bnbform v4.0. I made ... A: Actually, I believe your tech support was mistaken. It WAS administratively denied, but not because ... | |
| Sub routine | 1/22/2009 |
| Q: I have some numbers in @game=(10,2,13) for example and want to display for each number, a picture ... A: Try this instead: @game = (10,2,13); sub show { $what2show = $_[0]; $show="<img ... | |
| Array, sort | 1/17/2009 |
| Q: I have a text file that contains lines like: name1/value1 name1/value2 name2/value3 name3/value4 etc ... A: This sounds suspiciously like a homework question, so I'll just give you some direction on how to ... | |
| Calling subroutine (PERL CGI question) | 12/14/2008 |
| Q: Let me first tell you what my script is supposed to do; It's a page where users can view, edit and ... A: > 1. how can I get the value of $pagename to change from > 'home' to 'preview' after edit() runs? ... | |
| Screen Scraping | 11/22/2008 |
| Q: I am looking at executin a task which needs Screen Scraping, I am familiar with Perl, however I am ... A: You want the module LWP, which is installed by default. Here's an example: my $url = ... | |
| Web server | 10/2/2008 |
| Q: I have a static Ip Address, but I want to use my PC as a web server and using Perl/CGI as server ... A: This is a very long and complicated question to answer. It is best if you do some research with ... | |
| LWP:Simple | 9/28/2008 |
| Q: Some days ago you replied to my question "How to send data to a remote server from a perl script ... A: From here: http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2002/08/20/perlandlwp.html?page=5 When you access an HTTPS ... | |
| LWP:Simple | 9/27/2008 |
| Q: Some days ago you replied to my question "How to send data to a remote server from a perl script ... A: Yes, you may send query parameters as part of your URL string. Sending a GET request is the method ... | |
| Perl sending data | 9/20/2008 |
| Q: Jason, Well here is the same question in short: How to send data to a remote server from a perl ... A: OK, little easier to approach. You need to have a script on your server that knows how to accept ... | |
| File locking etc | 9/17/2008 |
| Q: On a server with a high traffic, what is the best way to be sure that 2 users won't update the same ... A: I'm glad this is working for you. Sometimes it does happen that the script doesn't get to call the ... | |
| File locking etc | 9/16/2008 |
| Q: On a server with a high traffic, what is the best way to be sure that 2 users won't update the same ... A: The example you pasted uses flock, which is a server system of locking a file and isn't always ... | |
| File locking etc | 9/16/2008 |
| Q: On a server with a high traffic, what is the best way to be sure that 2 users won't update the same ... A: Here's how I approach it logically: 1. User requests to open a file. 2. My program checks to see if ... | |
| perl script run on local host | 8/27/2008 |
| Q: i wrote down simple perl script on notepad #!/usr/bin/perl print "Content-type: text/html "; ... A: You'll need to download and install a web server to see the page run in a browser. Then you will be ... | |
| disabled perl script | 8/26/2008 |
| Q: I bought a perl database program and installed it with an incorrect uploadsdir path. I can edit the ... A: Without getting in and looking around it is nearly impossible to guess what is wrong. It sounds ... | |
| Form processing | 8/14/2008 |
| Q: A probably stupid thing blocks me: I use a html form to send data: <form action="go.cgi" ... A: I think your rating was pretty unfair... my solution would work if you had tried it. I wonder if ... | |
| coupon expires | 8/9/2008 |
| Q: … im trying to make a script that will have a coupon expire… When they go on the net the day they ... A: You need to set a cookie on the page they visit which lasts for 30 days. Then when the thirty days ... | |
| Perl, file names | 8/6/2008 |
| Q: If for example I have files with name like "email-data1", "email-data2", etc, is there a way to ... A: I think what you're wanting to do is to SEARCH for files that have a certain criteria, in this ... | |
| Uploading Multiple Large Files | 7/23/2008 |
| Q: I am trying to set up a site to design calendars using my users pictures. In order to do that I have ... A: The best way is to do the uploads in stages... If there are 12 pictures for 12 months, then do four ... | |
| Perl loop | 7/22/2008 |
| Q: I need to generate random numbers that will be file names, and test for each number (file) that the ... A: Your code is more "C-ish" than Perl-ish. Your loop is like that, especially, and you shouldn't ... | |
| combo box with Perl | 7/14/2008 |
| Q: .. Thanks for ur vital info....Would you please provide remedy to this issue please.....I am new ... A: You mean this? print qq~ <form> \n~; my $selected_switch; foreach my $list_item (@options_list){ ... | |
| include perl code in another perl script | 6/28/2008 |
| Q: I have a set of perl scripts that are used for event registration, each calling the next and passing ... A: I've had this same type of problem, so I can give you some suggestions on how to solve it. First, ... | |
| Form Security | 6/22/2008 |
| Q: You've helped me before. Now Im working on a shopping cart script. I've got a form which has a ... A: nice to hear from you again. I trust you're well. Sorry you had to wait for a couple of days. This ... | |
| repopulating CGI option fields | 6/18/2008 |
| Q: I have a CGI form that gathers information and writes it to a database. I would like the user to be ... A: Sorry for the delay in replying. You need to work through the options in a loop, and when you ... | |
| Responded to autoresponder. | 6/4/2008 |
| Q: >Can you tell me first what you are trying to accomplish? I don't understand exactly what you want ... A: This is pretty involved to get into over email. My best suggestion would be to use a different ... | |
| CGI-BIN Email question. | 5/21/2008 |
| Q: I have a very basic website. It has a form that sends the input fields from that form to a ... A: This is not difficult to do. The passed variables will be ignored because when the form is ... | |
| Retrieve pdf file from post data | 5/20/2008 |
| Q: I am posting a pdf file/image file on an apache webserver. I post it on a perl file which as of now ... A: I just answered a similar question from you. I assumed you were trying to upload the binary file. ... | |
| cgi form script: SEND_MAIL vs. #SMTP_SERVER | 5/13/2008 |
| Q: I'm trying to get this cgi script to work -- i've been getting a "MAIL NOT SENT. SMTP ERROR:" -- ... A: First, you need to confirm the location of sendmail on the server. It might not be usr/lib/sendmail. ... | |
| breaking out of a loop | 5/6/2008 |
| Q: With regards to your answer to the question posted here: ... A: Good point, no it would kill the script. The better solution would be to use LOOP and last LOOP. ... | |
| Link MS Excel with Internet Explorer | 4/29/2008 |
| Q: This is a part of a project that i am doing.... the thing is that i want to link MS Excel with ... A: There really isn't any easy way to do this. The only way I can imagine it as possible would be to ... | |
| printing to a local printer from the web | 4/8/2008 |
| Q: I have asked this question in the networking side and was told to ask it here, so I thought I would ... A: I suggest you actually do create PDFs on the fly. Here's an example of this: ... | |
| Concatenating in perl | 3/11/2008 |
| Q: I wanted to concatenate environment variable's name to a report file transfered to a server. May i ... A: I don't understand your project... environment variables are always a hash, in the $ENV. Perhaps ... | |
| Concatenating in perl | 3/11/2008 |
| Q: I wanted to concatenate environment variable's name to a report file transfered to a server. May i ... A: I'm a little confused by your project. Where does your environment variable come from? This line: ... | |
| Follow-up | 2/21/2008 |
| Q: The "follow up" button does not work, so I write a new message.. The old message at ... A: I wasn't the person who answered your question the first time... so I don't know the history of the ... | |
| how to break out of a loop when it takes too long to run | 2/21/2008 |
| Q: I am using Perl to do some pattern matching. I have say 500 files, and i wrote a loop to read ... A: You can put a time out by doing something like this: my $wait_timer; # maximum number of attempts ... | |
| File::Basename suffix is not showing | 2/18/2008 |
| Q: #!/usr/bin/perl# use File::Copy; use File::Basename; print "Enter an HTM (HTML) file: "; chomp ... A: Not sure I entirely understand, but I think you're looking for files that end in .html and renaming ... | |
| Deleting a particular line in a file using CGI | 2/8/2008 |
| Q: How do i delete a particular line in a file by using a cgi script. A: See this page for a complete answer: ... | |
| How to implement CAPTCHA in my form handling script | 1/26/2008 |
| Q: I added CAPTCHA to my contact html form But I am not sure what lines to add (how to ... A: There are a number of CAPTCHA options out there-- this one is free: http://www.captcha.net/ I can't ... | |
| Perl CGI | 1/21/2008 |
| Q: I am sending you the output of your script regarding my question at the end of this mail. Your ... A: OK, so the cookie is not showing up in the environment variables. How it works is that after you ... | |
| formmail.cgi | 1/20/2008 |
| Q: I have a site using formmail.cgi to email a online form to me but once i recieve it in email and try ... A: You'll need to open the formail.cgi script and modify the section of the script that contains the ... | |
| Perl CGI | 1/18/2008 |
| Q: I have created a cookie in this cgi script after validating the user. My problem is that this cookie ... A: Cookies are sent as part of the header, before the actual content of the page. The server prints ... | |
| generate an HTML page and list directory content | 1/12/2008 |
| Q: How can generate an HTML page with a Perl CGI script that lists the content of a given directory, ... A: What you need is a "file manager" type of script. There are many of these scripts available for ... | |
| ive a script and i want ot put words on front page, i have it in word but it breaks script | 1/6/2008 |
| Q: can you help me?? nobody will do anytihgn but jsut say "edit blah/blah/blah which DONT WORK i go ... A: Send me your URL. You can't edit scripts in Word. You need to use Notepad. You need to know some ... | |
| bnbform help. | 12/23/2007 |
| Q: ok, so I am trying to use the bnbform. I get NO ERRORS!!!!! ~BUT~ here is the link: ... A: My best guess is that there is some restriction on your server as to sending email. It could be ... | |
| membership area program stops running | 12/22/2007 |
| Q: I have three sites that use the same program to control access to their own members area. These have ... A: It could be that file paths have changed... if your scripts use hard-coded file paths, then they'll ... | |
| Software | 11/21/2007 |
| Q: It is not a question about Perl scripting itself: I am writing Perl scripts and am looking for a ... A: There is no simple way to encrypt Perl scripts. You can make them hard to read though, by ... | |
| Problem Regarding CGI script | 10/30/2007 |
| Q: I have created a html form given below. #!c:/perl/bin/perl print "content-type: text/html\n\n"; ... A: Oh, OK, I think I understand. It's quite easy actually-- just have the target to the anchor open in ... | |
| Perl Script to convert HTML table to CSV file | 10/26/2007 |
| Q: I'm trying to write a script that will download data from a website (in an HTML table) and dump it ... A: This is a complex question to describe in a simple email, but here's how I would approach it. 1. ... | |
| Regarding CGI script | 10/23/2007 |
| Q: Respected Sir, I have written a short mail program using sender.pm module. I have created a script ... A: I don't see anything wrong with the script. The attached files should be sent through the browser, ... | |
| Regarding CGI script | 10/23/2007 |
| Q: I have installed apache httpd server on my local machine(window xp). I have some perl cgi script ... A: This isn't really a cgi question, but a networking, or a platform question. I'll take a shot tho: I ... | |
| perl error | 10/20/2007 |
| Q: This is a perl script that I have: #!usr/bin/perl print "Content-type:text/html\n\n"; print ... A: Here's a better way to do what you're wanting: #!usr/bin/perl print "Content-type:text/html\n\n"; ... | |
| Birdcast cgi script | 10/18/2007 |
| Q: I have installed the birdcast.cgi script on our web site for send a friend this page, it seems to ... A: Sometimes when scripts are sent from web servers, they are more likely identifieed as potential ... | |
| Problem in CGI script | 10/17/2007 |
| Q: I have apache server installed and a data base made in ms access. The following script is running ... A: That's a really good question! This script looks perfect to me on first glance, and it it runs in ... | |
| Permissions question | 10/15/2007 |
| Q: I have a cron task that runs a perl script located in the cgi-bin folder (unix server). Is that ... A: As far as I know, there is no way to do this with permission. Perhaps you could add a CHMOD to the ... | |
| Mulitiple page forms | 10/5/2007 |
| Q: I am trying to create a cgi that will read information from one form, paste it to a file on the ... A: When you create your form, after you've printed the results to a file, you'll want to display a ... | |
| Mulitiple page forms | 10/5/2007 |
| Q: I am trying to create a cgi that will read information from one form, paste it to a file on the ... A: Most form processing scripts let you specify a custom thank you page. If you can't make that thank ... | |
| Can I Run a Perl CGI on My PC using ActivePerl? | 10/3/2007 |
| Q: I have a an HTML file and PERL file which mails a form. My installation will not let me run Perl ... A: When the form is submitted, the Perl script reads the contents of the submission and decides what to ... | |
| guestbook using cgi and html | 9/25/2007 |
| Q: I am trying to install a guestbook from bignosebird.com. I have tried everything to get it working ... A: That pop up prompting to save means that the browser doesn't know what to do with the file type... ... | |
| String in a file | 9/4/2007 |
| Q: I have a file of data, by line: data0/email/data1/data2/data3 ... A: You want to open the file, work through it line by line looking for the string, and when you come to ... | |
| i really need to learn more about forms - can you help? | 8/27/2007 |
| Q: new to the site and their very nice system here. I'm not a programmer, although would love to start ... A: It's a hard type of question to troubleshoot without getting in there and messing around. I'm afraid ... | |
| Perl/Red Hat Linux to VB.Net/SQL server 2000 | 8/27/2007 |
| Q: I have some know how of VB.Net/ASP.Net and SQL server 2000/2005. I may have to work on converting ... A: I don't have direct experience in this area, but I see this question has been here for a while, so I ... | |
| i really need to learn more about forms - can you help? | 8/25/2007 |
| Q: new to the site and their very nice system here. I'm not a programmer, although would love to start ... A: Sorry for the delay. I looked at the source for the jvcreativity site, and then the source for the ... | |
| i really need to learn more about forms - can you help? | 8/25/2007 |
| Q: new to the site and their very nice system here. I'm not a programmer, although would love to start ... A: Send me the URL of the various forms-- the one that works, and the others, and I'll look at the HTML ... | |
| cgi script/form no data sent to email | 8/22/2007 |
| Q: I have some questions. is there any way you can look at how I have my form and script setup right. ... A: Yes, sendmail is for Unix and Linux. I am not very familiar with sending mail on a Windows server. ... | |
| cgi script/form no data sent to email | 8/21/2007 |
| Q: I have some questions. is there any way you can look at how I have my form and script setup right. ... A: It's hard to say-- the first thing to check when you don't get an email is that you have the path to ... | |
| i really need to learn more about forms - can you help? | 8/21/2007 |
| Q: new to the site and their very nice system here. I'm not a programmer, although would love to start ... A: Not sure if I just answered you-- I just had a question similar to this one, about the same ... | |
| Copy entire dir tree | 8/13/2007 |
| Q: Your name is very familiar to me, we must have communicated before.. or you probably answered other ... A: Sorry, I thought you knew enough Perl to put it together. Here's a sample script: <code> ... | |
Jason Silver
Top Expert on this page
Expertise
I can answer questions about script installation problems. I can give hints and tips for writing code. I can suggest the best approaches for writing web applications, and other similar topics.
Experience
I've been writing Perl scripts since 1999. I sell my scripts at www.intelliscript.net
Education/Credentials
I'm self taught in computer programming.
Awards and Honors
I've been quoted in a computer programming publication, called CGI-101.
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