Use perl CGI to create <a href="url" target="t">text</a>?

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

Hello Beloved Monks:

I researched this , and the only answer I find is to abandon CGI.pm for this particular tag, and to just "print" the anchor. Even on perldoc.org:

...Something like this will do the trick.
$myself = self_url;
print "<a href=\"$myself#table1\">See table 1</a>";  <=== really?
[download]

I did find one site that implied there was a $cgi->a() method, but I found no documentation for it, nor how to close the tag with /a. One slashdot suggestion was to ^F for anchor on the CGI docs, and it came back RED. Is the practice truly to abandon CGI.pm for this requirement and instead print? I've become disciplined to use Perl CGI to generate all HTML , so this seems very unnatural.

Regards to all Monks!

Comment on Use perl CGI to create <a href="url" target="t">text</a>? Download Code

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Re: Use perl CGI to create <a href="url" target="t">text</a>? by choroba (Cardinal) on Jun 08, 2022 at 13:26 UTC
HTML generating functions have been moved to CGI::HTML::Functions. `$cgi->a` isn't documented there, but the example right at the beginning of the linked section should be enough to understand how it works. Nowadays, we usually use templates to generate HTML (Template::Toolkit, Text::Xslate). Going back to `print` is not the right way. `map{substr$_->[0],$_->[1]\|\|0,1}[\\|\|{},3],[[]],[ref qr-1,-,-1],[{}],[sub{}^ARGV,3]`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Use perl CGI to create <a href="url" target="t">text</a>? by misterperl (Friar) on Jun 08, 2022 at 14:07 UTC
TYVM yes I see that and got it working ! Well done..	[reply]
Re^2: Use perl CGI to create <a href="url" target="t">text</a>? by Anonymous Monk on Jun 08, 2022 at 20:41 UTC
Nowadays, we usually use templates to generate HTML (Template::Toolkit, Text::Xslate). Going back to print is not the right way. a template by any other name ;) since it started in ~1995 it didn't take a lot of work with "CGI::HTML::Functions" to find bugs, then check the bug cue/Changes, and realize bugs remain and reappear way too frequently to be relied upon, so you start writing your own functions and soon soon you turn it into heredocs with escapeHTML... There is a reason a diy templating engine is a rite of passage	[reply]
Re: Use perl CGI to create <a href="url" target="t">text</a>? by Fletch (Bishop) on Jun 08, 2022 at 13:29 UTC
How do you think CGI generates HTML output if not by printing it? And the documentation itself uses print in several examples (explicitly printing anchors, in fact). It should take just a second to work out from the `_tag_func` sub in the code to work out that attributes for tag generation should be passed as a hashref followed by the contents. `$ perl -MCGI -E 'say CGI->new->a( {href => "http://example.com"}, "Sam +ple" )' <a href="http://example.com">Sample</a>` [download] That being said in general it'd be better practice to use a templating engine for your HTML generation with that taking any dynamic values from whatever context its passed. If you look at Mojolicious and the like (Dancer2 (?), edit Dancer2::Template::TemplateToolkit specifically maybe) those use that kind of approach typically. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Use perl CGI to create <a href="url" target="t">text</a>? by misterperl (Friar) on Jun 08, 2022 at 14:06 UTC
Thanks, my question wasn't how or if to print. It was about how or if to use $cgi->a() which was answered but TY.	[reply]
Re: Use perl CGI to create <a href="url" target="t">text</a>? by BillKSmith (Monsignor) on Jun 08, 2022 at 15:22 UTC
If, contrary to the advice you have been given you insist on using `CGI.pm`, then I recommend that you buy the a copy of the ancient companion book "A Complete Guide to Programming with CGI.pm" (ISBN 0471247448). Your current question is answered in "Chapter Two: CGI.pm Basics" Bill	[reply] [d/l]