Form File Field

[n4mation]

I am trying to print stuff from a tab delimitd text file to a html form file field. It duzn't werk!

print "<input type=\"file\" name=\"pic\" value=\"$fields[2]\">";

If I change it to a text field, it werks!

print "<input type=\"text\" name=\"pic\" value=\"$fields[11]\">";

I can't find anything in the search. Could someone give the keywords or an answer?
Thanx 4 yer hep!

[bobn]

First, write

print "<input type=\"file\" name=\"pic\" value=\"$fields[2]\">";

as

print qq(<input type="file" name="pic" value="$fields[2]">);

But don't do that, use CGI.pm. Also, to process a file already on the server, <input type='text'...> is much more suitable. <input type='file'...> is used for file uploads.
--Bob Niederman, http://bob-n.com

All code given here is UNTESTED unless otherwise stated.

[shenme]

I believe an HTML 'file' form field is input-only, available to the user only for interactions between browser and OS to queue up a file to be sent to the HTTP server on form submission.

What did you want to accomplish here?

• simply displaying text of a file?
• display and allow user to edit text?
• something else?

[clscott]

Most browsers do not allow default values in File fields for security reasons.

Also, you can use alternate quoting methods so that you don't have to escape the double quotes.
Here are just two examples:

$field = qq{<input type="file" name="pic" value="$fields[2]">};

or 

$field = "<input type='file' name='pic' value='$fields[2]'>";

Clayton --
Clayton

[TomDLux]

A file input field is a mechanism for transfering files from the viewers computer to the server.

The server does not know what file the user would want to upload, so it does not take initialization values.

If you could might be a good, simple hack for uploading the password file.

--
TTTATCGGTCGTTATATAGATGTTTGCA

[n4mation]

Appreciate the help! I am using it for an edit entry form. I will just use a text field to display it.

[jeffa]

But your text fields all share the same name, 'pic' ... maybe what you want is a radiobutton group:

  <form>
  Foo <input value="foo" type="radio" name="pic" /><br />
  Bar <input value="bar" type="radio" name="pic" /><br />
  Baz <input value="baz" type="radio" name="pic" />
  </form>

Otherwise, your input fields should not share the same name.

There are a couple of ways to make radio buttons in Perl without to much fuss ... the first is by brute force, much like you did in your question. However, since the "stuff" from your tab delimited file is already stored in the array @fields, we can iterate across the loop and not have to worry about whether or not we are dealing with the second index or the eleventh index:

print "<form>\n";

for my $field (@fields) {
   print qq|<input value="$field" type="radio" name="pic" /><br />\n|;
}

print "</form>\n";

CGI.pm has a very handy method for generating radio boxes:

use CGI qw(:standard);

print start_form,

   radio_group(-name => 'pic', -values => \@field),

   end_form,
;

I recommend that you visit and read Ovid's online Web Programming with Perl course. You will learn a lot of good stuff there. :)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)