http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=286553

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

I'd explain the situation but I bet there is a simple answer so I'll simply ask it... I have a script that reads the html of one page and displays (the HTML) in a text box. kind of like a view-source right in the page. Only sometimes the html is garbled, it won't show the ' > ' or ' < ' and bits like '& nbsp' show up as the space rather than the code... maybe this is an html question, but since it is in a script i'd like to fins perl command. thanks for whatecer anyone can offer!!!

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Re: View The HTML ???
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Aug 26, 2003 at 02:03 UTC
    You need to escape characters that have special meaning in HTML. CGI.pm has escapeHTML and then there's HTML::Entities.

    Makeshifts last the longest.

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Re: View The HTML ???
by asarih (Hermit) on Aug 26, 2003 at 02:07 UTC
    What "text box"? And are you processing the text (converting > to &gt;, etc.) before calling Perl's print?

    I guess CPAN is a start.

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      Yea right now I just have a whole list of filters
      @HTMLUN2 = map { s/</&lt/; $_ } @HTMLUN1;
@HTML = map { s/>/&gt/; $_ } @HTMLUN2;

print <<HTML;
<textarea>@{[join("",@HTML)]}</textarea>
HTML

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      I am looking for the command that does all the stuff for me, so i don't need to map { everything.
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        Update: I'm a klutz.. don't forget to see asarih's reply below.

        FWIW, you need to add s/&/&amp;/g; to your substitutions for a minimal escaping solution.

        Also, you must terminate your entities with a semicolon - it's &lt; and not &lt. (Well, the latter is acceptable in some cases under SGML, but don't go there unless you like headaches.)

        A few style suggestions on your code - try something like this:

        s/</&lt;/ for @HTML;
s/>/&gt;/ for @HTML;
s/&/&amp;/ for @HTML;

print '<textarea>', join("", @HTML), '</textarea>';

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        Much easier on the eyes, no? Anyway, as I've already said: 
        use CGI qw(:standard);
print textarea('', escapeHTML(join '', @HTML));

        [download]

        Makeshifts last the longest.

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Re: View The HTML ???
by einerwitzen (Sexton) on Aug 26, 2003 at 03:08 UTC
    Absolutely Wonderful, thanks a ton ...

    open (PAGE, "$file");
@HTML = <PAGE>;
close (PAGE);

print <<PART1;
<textarea style="{border: solid 1 #000033; width: 900; height: 550;}" 
+name="text">
PART1

use CGI qw(:standard);
print escapeHTML(join '', @HTML);

print <<PART2;
</textarea>
PART2

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      Well, FWIW, you shouldn't be importing a million functions using :standard if you're only using one of them. Are you using CGI.pm anyway to parse parameters?

      Makeshifts last the longest.

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      You really should look into Templating Solutions. Here are two for your amusement:
      1. Template:
        Read more... (1043 Bytes)
      2. HTML::Template:
        Read more... (1101 Bytes)
      Feel free to ask questions about these modules, they are designed to make your life easier - but you don't appreciate that up front. ;)

      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)
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