What am I doing wrong here?

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

I keep getting a 404 error. I have created a form. This form is to redirect (after hitting the submit button) to another page letting the user know they need to go back. I am trying to redirect to the c12case1b.html file but am apparently putting in the wrong extension? They are on the server I am using but keep getting a 404 error. Here is all three files...

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/~zach3327/cgi-bin/c12case1.cgi">
   Phoenix Industries:<br>
   <name="phoenix industries">
   <br>
   Name:<br>
  <input type="text" name="name" value=>
   <br>
   Address:<br>
  <input type="text" name="address" value=>
   <br>
   City:<br>
  <input type="text" name="city" value=>
   <br>
   State:<br>
  <input type="text" name="state" value=>
   <br>
   ZIP code:<br>
  <input type="text" name="zip code" value=>
<br>

<br><br>
<input type="submit" value="Submit"> <input type="reset" value="Reset"
+>
</form>

</body>
</html>
[download]

<HEAD><TITLE>Phoenix Industries</TITLE></HEAD>
        <BODY>
         <H1 ALIGN=center>Phoenix Industries<HR>
         Please press your browser’s back button to return to the form
+. Then complete all items
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl
#c12case1.cgi -Location header
use CGI qw(:standard);
use strict;


#declare and assign value to variable
my ($name);
$name = param('Name');


#create Hello page
if($name ne "") {
     print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
     print "<HTML>\n";
     print "<HEAD><TITLE>Phoenix Industries</TITLE></HEAD\n";
     print "<BODY>\n";
     print "<H1 ALIGN=center>Phoenix Industries<HR>\n";
     print "Please return to your browser's back button to return to t
+he form, $name!</H1></BODY></HTML>";
}
else {
     print "Location:
        http://~zach3327/public_html/chapter12/c12case1b.html\n\n";
}
[download]

Comment on What am I doing wrong here? Select or Download Code

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Re: What am I doing wrong here? by haukex (Archbishop) on Apr 12, 2018 at 06:55 UTC
The main thing is probably the URL "`http://~zach3327/public_html/chapter12/c12case1b.html`": `~zach3327` is probably not the hostname. Try removing the `http://` and starting the URL with just `/~zach3327/...` instead (you could also get the script's location in different formats via CGI.pm's `url` function, and if you need further URL manipulation, see URI - Update: see my other post). It also seems that you've embedded hard newlines in the string as `"Location:\n\t ..."` - I'd recommend not doing that, i.e. "`print "Location: /~zach3327/...`". I also see a few other issues: Note the casing: `<input type="text" name="name"` vs. `param('Name')` You're not using warnings, which would help you catch other potential problems if they arise. Your style of HTML is fairly old, and contain at least one typo that I see right off the bat (`...</HEAD\n"`). If you are going from a tutorial of some kind, I think it's a pretty old one. That'd also explain the use of CGI.pm, which isn't really modern anymore. See also UP-TO-DATE Comparison of CGI Alternatives, CGI Parameters, and CGI::Alternatives. By printing out `$name` as part of the ~~URL~~HTML without escaping it, you are exposing yourself to a Cross-site scripting (XSS) attack (tutorial). You should at least use `escapeHTML` from CGI::HTML::Functions. You are printing some things yourself that you could be using CGI.pm's functionality for: see its `header` and `redirect` functions. Edit: Fixed thinko.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: What am I doing wrong here? by haj (Vicar) on Apr 12, 2018 at 08:46 UTC
Your Value for `Location` has `~zach3327` in the place where the name of the web server (the "host") is expected. If you don't want to hardcode the name of your webserver, then use CGI's methods `server_name` or `virtual_host`, whichever is appropriate.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: What am I doing wrong here? by haukex (Archbishop) on Apr 12, 2018 at 12:05 UTC
use CGI's methods `server_name` or `virtual_host` That's a start, but unfortunately not enough: it misses the protocol and port. I think it's better to use CGI.pm's `url` function/method. For example, also demonstrating URI: `#!/usr/bin/env perl use warnings; use strict; use CGI qw/:standard/; use URI; print header("text/plain"); print server_name(), "\n"; print virtual_host(), "\n"; print url(), "\n"; my $url = URI->new( url( -base => 1 ) )->canonical; $url->path( '/some/new/path' ); print "$url\n";` [download] Would output, for example: `www.example.com www.example.com http://www.example.com:8080/cgi-bin/test.cgi http://www.example.com:8080/some/new/path` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]