Re^4: Absolute simplest way to keep a database variable persistent?

[natestraight]

Yeah, I thought about using a server to handle the issue. The problem with this method is that, ideally, my finished application (excel sheet + custom VBA functions + working Perl scripts) is going to be transferred to other users, who are not even able to be considered n00bs. I'm trying to keep the techie overhead and the requisite configuration to a minimum so that I can just bundle up the necessary Perl directories in a .zip and send them along with my spreadsheet.

[admiral_grinder]

Instead of using a webserver, have your Perl script fork off its own server (if one isn't running at the time). It can communicate on a socket. We have a CGI program that keeps an large XSLT in standby. Using IO::Socket:

my $sock = new IO::Socket::INET ( LocalHost => $server,
                                  LocalPort => 9200,
                                  Proto     => 'tcp',
                                  Listen    => 2,
                                  ReuseAddr => 1,
                                );
die "socket creation error: $!" unless $sock;

while( my $client = $sock->accept() ) {
  binmode $client, ":utf8";
  $client->autoflush(1);

  # Read data
  while( $client->recv( $in_buffer, $buffer_size ) ) {
    # Store data
  }

  # Process data

  # Return data
  $client->send( $output );
}

Some things to consider to make it dummy proof is allow it to adjust what port is runs on at runtime, and to have the server exit after a while to avoid zombie processes.

[natestraight]

Sounds possible. Thanks for the sample code, too.