Terminal Form data entry

pgduke65 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks,

I have a desire to create a script that would essentially present the user with an input form that they can fill out with values that would be used elsewhere in the process.

I could do so by prompting and getting input. Then prompt for the next value, etc. but this does not provide the user experience I hope to provide.

I have seen examples of using a web form. However, in this case, we are unable to install/use a web server. Is there a way to do data entry into a form on a terminal window?

Thank you.

Comment on Terminal Form data entry

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Re: Terminal Form data entry by roboticus (Chancellor) on Jun 20, 2013 at 01:07 UTC
pgduke65: If you don't mind a bit of VBScript programming, you could use your web browser without having a web server by creating an "HTML Application". They're not my favorite way of doing things, but it's a relatively easy way to cobble up a "pretty" front end. The concept is that you have an HTML form with some VBScript code behind it. In that VBscript code you can execute your perl scripts and such. If you want to find information about it, do a web search on "HTA application" and you'll get some useful results. I've made exactly two of these in my life. I found them a little annoying to build/debug, but that's not necessarily and indictment of them, as I also find web applications, HTML and javascript all annoying anyway. (I'm a console/CLI guy, and if you look at my screen at any given time, you'd normally see it plastered with console windows, except when I'm web-surfing.) ...roboticus When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.	[reply]
Re^2: Terminal Form data entry by pgduke65 (Acolyte) on Jun 20, 2013 at 02:27 UTC
Wow, never really thought about that. Cool to know it can be done. In this case I am running on a Linux platform. As far as I know VB Script is a Win only thing. But then again, I did not think of calling Perl from VB Script either :). Thanks for the help. I appreciate it very much.	[reply]
Re^3: Terminal Form data entry by roboticus (Chancellor) on Jun 20, 2013 at 15:04 UTC
pgduke65: Yeah, on Linux this just doesn't apply. I'm looking into the Prima gui stuff for making some apps with nice front ends. I haven't had much time to work on it yet, so I can't speak for how good it is yet. But so far, I find it interesting. ...roboticus When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.	[reply]
Re: Terminal Form data entry by Anonymous Monk on Jun 20, 2013 at 00:06 UTC
See Term::Interact and Term::Interact example See Ask and Curses::UI QWizard - Display a series of questions, get the answers, and act on the answers. Config::Model, Config::Model::CursesUI, Config::Model::TkUI UI::Dialog	[reply]
Re^2: Terminal Form data entry by pgduke65 (Acolyte) on Jun 20, 2013 at 02:23 UTC
Thanks for the information. I'll take a look.	[reply]