in reply to Re: using strict and a config file
in thread using strict and a config file

Here is my config_mailto.txt file: 
my @fields = ("to", "from", "subject", "message");

my @field_names;
@field_names = ("To", "From", "Subject", "Message");


my $page_title = "Mailto";

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Here is how I'm using @fields in my main perl script: 
<tr>
                <td>From:</td>
                <td><select name="$fields[1]" size="1">
                more code...
            </select></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Subject:</td>
                <td><input type="text" name="$fields[2]" size="24"></t
+d>
            </tr>
                <tr>
                <td>Message:</td>
                <td><textarea name="$fields[3]" cols="40" rows="4"></t
+extarea></td>
            </tr>
                <tr>
                <td>Send it!:</td>
                <td><INPUT TYPE="submit" NAME="action" VALUE="Send"></
+td>

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: Re: using strict and a config file
by busunsl (Vicar) on Nov 12, 2001 at 13:55 UTC
    Remove the my declaration from your config file.

    Declare your arrays with our in your program:

    our @fields;
out @field_names;

    [download]
    Then require your config file:
    require 'config_mailto.txt';

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    That should work.

    Have a look at perldoc -f our and perldoc -f my for more info.

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      There are a lot of people still using version 5.005_03, in which case the our solution is simply not an option. But even if you do have 5.6.x installed, I still am not convinced that it is a good idea. See Why is 'our' good? for some of my doubts.
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        I agree. In fact I think a better solution would be not to have Perl code in the config file but name/value pairs and read them into a hash.
        Perhaps even better use a CPAN module for the config file handling.
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Re: Re: Re: using strict and a config file
by mce (Curate) on Nov 12, 2001 at 13:55 UTC
    Hi,
    I have a similar setup and the way I work is fully qualifing the variable using the package name. This will prevent strict from complaining. For Example: The config_mail file 
    Package MailConfig;
use strict;
@MailConfig::fields=qw /to from subject message/;

    [download]
    etc... And in your actual program, do: 
    use strict;
require "config_mail.pl";

...your print code...
<tr>
<td>From:</td>
<td><select name='$MailConfig::fields[1]" size="1">
more code...
            </select></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Subject:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="$MailConfig::fields[2]" size="24"></t
+d>

    [download]
    This is the most readable solution, as you know where to look for when you want to change a variable.
    Dr. Mark Ceulemans

    Senior Consultant

    IT Masters, Belgium

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      Glancing at your print code strongly suggests to me that you have a lot to learn about separation of presentation and content.

      A good first link I would therefore recommend is the following paper on how to use the template toolkit in building web sites.

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Re: using strict and a config file
by guha (Priest) on Nov 12, 2001 at 16:12 UTC
    How about this setup which I think is clean way to do it.

    Content of the config file, say cfg.cfg 

    %cfg = (To => 'to',
        From => 'from',
        Subject => 'subject',
        Message => "message\nmsg2\n",
        Page_Title => 'MailTo');

%cfg;

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    Then you do something like this in the main program. 

    use strict;
.
.
my $file = 'cfg.cfg';
my %cfg;
my $return = do $file;
unless ($return) {
    die "couldn't parse $file: $@" if $@;
    die "couldn't do $file: $!"    unless defined $return;
    die "couldn't run $file"       unless $return;
}

%cfg =  %{$return};

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    And then later in your code use it as 

    
                <td><select name="$cfg{From}" size="1">
                more code...
            </select></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Subject:</td>
                <td><input type="text" name="$cfg{Subject}" size="24">
+</t

    [download]
    This is easily expanded to have several different configs in the same file.
    Ex $cfg{Guest}{To}, $cfg{Admin}{Page_Title}, etc etc

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