How to convert an @ARGV to form based input?

taint has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by ig (Vicar) on Aug 21, 2012 at 08:22 UTC
You have explained a bit about what you don't want but you haven't said much about what you do want, so I can only guess. Anyway, you seem to be having a problem accessing CGI parameters from your script. Here is one simple way to access a CGI parameter: `use strict; use warnings; use Net::DNS; use CGI; use CGI::Carp qw{fatalsToBrowser}; my $q = CGI->new(); my $dns = new Net::DNS::Resolver; if(my $domain = $q->param('domain')) { my $mx = $dns->query( $domain, 'MX' ); print "content-type:text/html; charset=utf-8\n\n"; print "$domain:\n\n"; foreach my $rr ($mx->answer) { print "<br />", $rr->exchange, ' [<b>', $rr->preference, "</b> +]\n"; } } else { die "missing required parameter: domain"; }` [download] If you query this CGI script with a URL like: `http://mydomain.tld/dnsdig.cgi?domain=google.com` [download] You should get something. It is unusual, in my experience, to use unnamed parameters with HTTP requests. Whether using GET or POST, I always name my parameters. Note that this CGI script will work with both GET requests, with parameters in the URL or POST requests with parameters in the body, as commony submitted from HTML forms. Hopefully, this will get you past your block, to see how query parameters can be accessed from within a CGI script. Do read up on CGI and CGI::Carp	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by Anonymous Monk on Aug 21, 2012 at 08:36 UTC
Or even `use CGI; my $query = $ENV{QUERY_STRING} \|\| $ENV{REDIRECT_QUERY_STRING} \|\| '%68% +69.example.com'; my $domain = CGI->unescape( $query ); print CGI->header; print "$domain\n"; __END__ Content-Type: text/html hi.example.com` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by taint (Chaplain) on Aug 21, 2012 at 08:57 UTC
Good advice @ig, and thank you very much for the reply. What I actually have, is a very large script that provides every option DNS queries permit. I built, and tested it as CLI (at the console/term). Now that it all works at the term, I want to incorporate a form field where the `(@ARGV)` is. Since the whole thing is so large, I simply posted one of the queries as an example. I have already finished all of the web based stuff, providing each query option as a `<select> <option> </option> </select>` [download] Then providing additional options as checkboxes, or radio. so: the example I posted here appears as: `<select> <option>MX</option> </select>` [download] the additional options are A, AAA, HINFO, IP6, TXT, etc... What I do want to do, is provide an empty form input field that allows the entry of a domain name to query those options for. meaning; replace the `(@ARGV)` I have now, with a form input field. As it sits now (without form fielsd(s), I can query the form via: `http://mydomain.tld/dnsdig.cgi?somedomain.tld` and it returns the MX records (using the example above with the `(@ARGV)`. But I don't want the web clients location: to see, or be able to manipulate the query string -- hence the desire to put the form fields within the script itself, and my choice of using the POST method. I hope that helps clear things up a bit, and thanks again for your thoughtful reply. --Chris #!/usr/bin/perl -Tw use perl::always; my $perl_version = "5.12.4"; print $perl_version;	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by Anonymous Monk on Aug 21, 2012 at 09:00 UTC
But I don't want the web clients location: to see, or be able to manipulate the query string -- hence the desire to put the form fields within the script itself, and my choice of using the POST method. Yeah, POST doesn't hide anything from the client	[reply]
Re^4: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by taint (Chaplain) on Aug 21, 2012 at 09:10 UTC
Re^5: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by aaron_baugher (Curate) on Aug 21, 2012 at 09:55 UTC
Re^5: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by Anonymous Monk on Aug 21, 2012 at 09:39 UTC
Re^3: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by ig (Vicar) on Aug 21, 2012 at 14:02 UTC
From CGI: It is possible for a script to receive CGI parameters in the URL as well as in the fill-out form by creating a form that POSTs to a URL containing a query string (a "?" mark followed by arguments). The param() method will always return the contents of the POSTed fill-out form, ignoring the URL's query string. To retrieve URL parameters, call the url_param() method. Use it in the same way as param(). The main difference is that it allows you to read the parameters, but not set them. So, you can easily ignore parameters from the URL when using CGI. If you are parsing the CGI inputs otherwise, you will have to look to the tools you are using to find out what your options are. When you are delivering the blank form, you can ignore parameters entirely, if that suits you. For an empty form input field, I would use something like: `<form method="POST" action="http://mydomain.tld/dnsdig.cgi"> <input type="text" name="domain"> <input type="submit" value="Submit"> </form>` [download] If the user enters a URL that refers to your CGI script and includes a query string in the URL, you could detect this and issue a redirect to a URL without a query string.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by CountZero (Bishop) on Aug 21, 2012 at 06:10 UTC
any incarnation of: (...) fails! "Fails" in which way? Any errors on screen or in the webserver's logs? Do you use CGI (or similar) to parse the inputs? CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James My blog: Imperial Deltronics	[reply]
Re^2: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by taint (Chaplain) on Aug 21, 2012 at 06:17 UTC
Greetings @CountZero, and thank you for your prompt reply! Yes, there are errors. In the case above, perl complains about: `Global symbol "$domain" requires explicit package name at dnsdig.cgi line 8.` Mind you, I've tried MANY different incarnations today. But I think that was the output perl emitted in the web log, when I used the example above. Thanks again for taking the time to respond. --Chris #!/usr/bin/perl -Tw use perl::always; my $perl_version = "5.12.4"; print $perl_version;	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by CountZero (Bishop) on Aug 21, 2012 at 06:40 UTC
Mmmm, obviously you have not shown us the whole of your program and that makes it difficult to help you. It seems the code to stuff the content of the form fields into `$domain` is entirely missing. I suggest you make a small and simple cgi-script using CGI::Simple or such and see you can get some data in and out of it. Don't yet bother yourself with coupling the cgi-script with your DNS-routines. You can add those later. Or even better, start using some web-frameworks (Dancer springs to mind) to make life more easy for you. CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James My blog: Imperial Deltronics	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by taint (Chaplain) on Aug 21, 2012 at 07:04 UTC
Re^5: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by CountZero (Bishop) on Aug 21, 2012 at 10:08 UTC
Re^5: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by Anonymous Monk on Aug 21, 2012 at 07:17 UTC
Re^3: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by grizzley (Chaplain) on Aug 21, 2012 at 07:20 UTC
That's obviously because in `for my $domain(...)` loop you defined `$domain` but when you replaced this line with `if($domain ne "")` this variable was not defined anymore. Put `my $domain;` before if and it will work.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by taint (Chaplain) on Aug 21, 2012 at 07:52 UTC
Re^5: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by grizzley (Chaplain) on Aug 21, 2012 at 08:04 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^5: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by taint (Chaplain) on Aug 21, 2012 at 08:03 UTC
Re: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by CountZero (Bishop) on Aug 21, 2012 at 13:29 UTC
Your problem seems to be that you do not know how to get the data from your form field into your script. The old but venerable Ovid's CGI course (sadly now only found on the way-back engine) will explain it to you. Lessons 4 and 5 are particularly to the point. CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James My blog: Imperial Deltronics	[reply]
Re^2: How to convert an @ARGV to form based input? by taint (Chaplain) on Aug 21, 2012 at 16:50 UTC
Greetings @CountZero, and thank you for your continued efforts. Well, I see what the problem has been. Using the advice listed within this thread -- including my own thoughts, have all returned the POSTed data as `$domain=blah...`, instead of turning `$domain` into `blah...` -- which was what the title suggested ;). So. I think the best idea will be to abandon the use of `NET::DNS::*`, and simply slurp the form input data, and pass it to my system via a: `read(STDIN,$temp,$ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});`. This worked quite well for my whois script, and I was able to easily sanitize the input by filtering `$temp` before handing it off to the system itself. Thanks again, to you, and everyone else who attempted to help me solve this problem. Perhaps this dialog will help others who fall into this dilemna. :) --Chris #!/usr/bin/perl -Tw use perl::always; my $perl_version = "5.12.4"; print $perl_version;	[reply] [d/l] [select]


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